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Teutonic Mythology

Gods and Goddesses
of the Northland

THREE VOLUMES

By VIKTOR RYDBERG, Ph.D.,

MEMBER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY; AUTHOR OF "THE LAST ATHENIAN"
AND OTHER WORKS.

AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE SWEDISH

RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D.,

EX-UNITED STATES MINISTER TO DENMARK ; AUTHOR OF "NORSE
MYTHOLOGY," "VIKING TALES," ETC.

HON. RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D., Ph.D.,

EDITOR IN CHIEF.

J. W. BUEL, Ph.D.,

MANAGING EDITOR.

VOL. I.

PUBLISHED BY THE

NORRCENA SOCIETY,

LONDON COPENHAGEN STOCKHOLM BERLIN NEW YORK
1906

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'EUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.

TABLE OF FTEN"
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UN, HEIMDAL. LOKE, AND BRACE.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOLUME ONE.

PART I.

Page
Introduction — The Ancient Aryans I

(a) The Aryan Family of Languages 3

Hypothesis of Asiatic Origin of the Aryans 5

Hypothesis of European Origin of the Aryans 15

The Aryan Land of Europe 20

(b) Ancient Teutondom • 26

PART II.

(a) Mediaeval Migration Sagas 32

The Troy Saga and Prose Edda 44

Saxo's Relation to the Story of Troy 47

Older Periods of the Troy Saga 50

Story of the Origin of Trojan Descent of the Franks.. 60

Odin as Leader of the Trojan Emigration 67

Materials of the Icelandic Troy Saga 83

Result of Foregoing Investigations 96

(b) Popular Traditions of the Middle Ages 99

Saxon and Swabian Migration Saga 107

The Frankish Migration Saga in

Migration Saga of the Burgundians 113

Teutonic Emigration Saga 119

PART III.

Myths Concerning the Creation of Man 126

Scef, the Original Patriarch 135

Page
Borgar-Skjold, the Second Patriarch 143

Half dan, the Third Patriarch 147

Halfdan's Enmity with Orvandel and Svipdag 151

Halfdan's Identity with Mannus 153

Sacred Runes Learned from Heimdal 159

Sorcery, the Reverse of Sacred Runes 165

Heimdal and the Sun Goddess 167

Loke Causes Enmity Between Gods and Creators 171

Halfdan Identical with Helge 180

The End of the Age of Peace 185

War with the Heroes from Svarin's Mound 194

Review of the Svipdag Myth 200

The World-War and its Causes 204

Myth Concerning the Sword Guardian 213

Breach Between Asas Vans. Siege of Asgard 235

Significance of the World- War 252

The War in Midgard. Hadding's Adventures 255

Position of the Divine Clans to the Warriors 262

Hadding's Defeat 268

Loke's Punishment 273

Original Model of the Bravalla Battle 281

The Dieterich Saga 285

PART IV.

Myth in Regard to the Lower World 306

Gudmund, King of the Glittering Plains 309

Ruler of the Lower World 312

Fjallerus and Hadingus in the Low World 317

A Frisian Saga, Adam of Bremen 319

Odainsaker and the Glittering Plains 321

Identification of Odainsaker 336

Gudmund's Identity with Mimer 339

Mimer's Grove .341

LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES

VOL. I.

Frontispiece — Idun, Heimdal, Loke, and Brage.

Page
Thor the Thunder God 120

Giant Thjasse in the Guise of an Eagle Carries off Loke. 174
Odin Punishes the Monstrous Progeny of Loke 300

STOCKHOLM, NOVEMBER 20, 1887.

HON. RASMUS B. ANDERSON,
United States Minister,

Copenhagen, Denmark.

DEAR SIR,

It gives me pleasure to authorise you to translate
into English my work entitled "Researches in Teutonic
Mythology," being convinced that no one could be found
better qualified for this task than yourself. Certainly no
one has taken a deeper interest than you in spreading
among our Anglo-Saxon kinsmen, not only a knowledge
of our common antiquity, but also of what modern Scan-
dinavia is contributing to the advancement of culture — a
work in which England and the United States of America
are taking so large a share.

Yours faithfully,

VIKTOR RYDBERG.

INTRODUCTION.

A. THE ANCIENT ARYANS.
1.

THE WORDS GERMAN AND GERMANIC.

ALREADY at the beginning of the Christian era the
name Germans was applied by the Romans and Gauls
to the many clans of people whose main habitation was
the extensive territory east of the Rhine, and north of
the forest-clad Hercynian Mountains. That these clans
constituted one race was evident to the Romans, for they
all had a striking similarity in type of body; moreover,
a closer acquaintance revealed that their numerous dialects
were all variations of the same parent language, and
finally, they resembled each other in customs, traditions,
and religion. The characteristic features of the physical
type of the Germans were light hair, blue eyes, light
complexion, and tallness of stature as compared with
the Romans.

Even the saga-men, from whom the Roman historian
Tacitus gathered the facts for his Germania — an inval-
uable work for the history of civilisation — knew that in

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the so-called Svevian Sea, north of the German continent,
lay another inportant part of Germany, inhabited by
Sviones, a people divided into several clans. Their kins-
men on the continent described them as rich in weapons
and fleets, and in warriors on land and sea (Tac., Germ.,
44). This northern sea-girt portion of Germany is called
Scandinavia — Scandeia by other writers of the Roman
Empire ; and there can be no doubt that this name referred
to the peninsula which, as far back as historical monu-
ments can be found, has been inhabited by the ancestors
of the Swedes and the Norwegians. I therefore include
in the term Germans the ancestors of both the Scandina-
vian and Gothic and German (tyske) peoples. Science
needs a sharply-defined collective noun for all these
kindred branches sprung from! one and the same root,
and the name by which they make their first appearance
in history would doubtless long since have been selected
for this purpose had not some of the German writers
applied the terms German and Deutsch as synonymous.
This is doubtless the reason why Danish authors have
adopted the word "Goths" to describe the Germanic
nation. But there is an important objection to this in the
fact that the name Goths historically is claimed by a partic-
ular branch of the family — that branch, namely, to which
the East and West Goths belonged, and in order to avoid
ambiguity, the term should be applied solely to them.. It
is therefore necessary to re-adopt the old collective name,
even though it is not of Germanic origin, the more so as
there is a prospect that a more correct use of the words
German and Germanic is about to prevail in Germany

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

itself, for the German scholars also feel the weight of
the demand which science makes on a precise and rational
terminology.*

2.
THE; ARYAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES.

It is universally known that the Teutonic dialects are
related to the Latin, the Greek, the Slavic, and Celtic lan-
guages, and that the kinship extends even beyond Europe
to the tongues of Armenia, Irania, and India. The holy
books ascribed to Zoroaster, which to the priests of Cyrus
and Darius were what the Bible is to us ; Rigveda's hymns,
which to the people dwelling on the banks of the Ganges
are God's revealed word, are written in a language which
points to a common origin with our own. However
unlike all these kindred tongues may have grown with the
lapse of thousands of years, still they remain as a sharply-
defined group of older and younger sisters as compared
with all other language groups of the world. Even the

*Viktor Rydberg styles his work Researches in Germanic Mythology,
but after consultation with the Publishers, the Translator decided to use the
word Teutonic instead of Germanic both in the title and in the body of the
work. In English, the words German, Germany, and Germanic are ambig-
uous. The Scandinavians and Germans have the words Tyskland, tysk,
Deutschland, deutsch, when they wish to refer to the present Germany,
and thus it is easy for them to adopt the words German and Germanisk to
describe the Germanic or Teutonic peoples collectively. The English lan-
guage applies the above word Dutch not to Germany, but to Holland, and
It Is necessary to use the words German and Germany In translating
deutsch, Deutschland, tysk, and Tyskland. Teutonic has already been
adopted by Max Muller and other scholars in England and America as a
designation of all the kindred branches sprung from one and the same
root, and speaking dialects of the same original tongue. The words Teuton,
Teutonic, and Teutondom also have the advantage over German and Ger-
manic that they are of native growth and not borrowed from a foreign
language. In the following pages, therefore, the word Teutonic will be
used to describe Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxons, &c., collectively,
while German will be used exclusively in regard to Germany proper. —
TRANSLATOR.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Semitic languages are separated therefrom by a chasm so
broad and deep that it is hardly possible to bridge it.

This language-group of ours has been named in various
ways. It has been called the Indo-Germanic, the Indo-
European, and the Aryan family of tongues. I have
adopted the last designation. The Armenians, Iranians,
and Hindoos I call the Asiatic Aryans ; all the rest I call
the European Aryans.

Certain it is that these sister-languages have had a com-
mon mother, the ancient Aryan speech, and that this has
had a geographical centre from which it has radiated.
(By such an ancient Aryan language cannot, of course, be
meant a tongue stereotyped in all its inflections, like the
literary languages of later times, but simply the unity
of those dialects which were spoken by the clans dwell-
ing around this centre of radiation.) By comparing the
grammatical structure of all the daughters of this ancient
mother, and by the aid of the laws hitherto discovered in
regard to the transition of sounds from one language to
another, attempts have been made to restore this original
tongue which many thousand years ago ceased to vibrate.
These attempts cannot, of course, in any sense claim to
reproduce an image corresponding to the lost original as
regards syntax and inflections. Such a task would be
as impossible as to reconstruct, on the basis of all the now
spoken languages derived from the Latin, the dialect used
in Latium. The purpose is simply to present as faithful
an idea of the ancient tongue as the existing means permit.

In the most ancient historical times Aryan-speaking
people were found only in Asia and Europe. In seeking

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

for the centre and the earliest conquests of the ancient
Aryan language, the scholar may therefore keep within the
limits of these two continents, and in Asia he may leave
all the eastern and the most of the southern portion out of
consideration, since these extensive regions have from
prehistoric times been inhabited by Mongolian and allied
tribes, and may for the present be regarded as the cradle
of these races. It may not be necessary to remind the
reader that the question of the original home of the
ancient Aryan tongue is not the same as the question in
regard to the cradle of the Caucasian race. The white
race may have existed, and may have been spread over a
considerable portion of the old world, before a language
possessing the peculiarities belonging to the Aryan had
appeared; and it is a known fact that southern portions
of Europe, such as the Greek and Italian peninsulas, were
inhabited by white people before they were conquered by
Aryans.

THE HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING THE ASIATIC ORIGIN OP
THE ARYANS.

When the question of the original home of the Aryan
language and race was first presented, there were no con-
flicting opinions on the main subject.* All who took any
interest in the problem referred to Asia as the cradle of
the Aryans. Asia had always been regarded as the cradle
of the human race. In primeval time, the yellow Mongo-

* Compare O. Schrader, Sprachverglcichung und Urgeschichte (1883).

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

lian, the black African, the American redskin, and the
fair European had there tented side by side. From some
common centre in Asia they had spread over the whole
surface of the inhabited earth. Traditions found in the
literatures of various European peoples in regard to an
immigration from the East supported this view. The
progenitors of the Romans were said to have come from
Troy. The fathers of the Teutons were reported to have
immigrated from Asia, led by Odin. There was also the
original home of the domestic animals and of the culti-
vated plants. And when the startling discovery was
made that the sacred books of the Iranians and Hindoos
were written in languages related to the culture languages
of Europe, when these linguistic monuments betrayed a
wealth of inflections in comparison with which those of
the classical languages turned pale, and when they seemed
to have the stamp of an antiquity by the side of which the
European dialects seemed like children, then what could
be more natural than the following conclusion : The
original form has been preserved in the original home;
the farther the streams of emigration got away from this
home, the more they lost on the way of their language
and of their inherited view of the world ; that is, of their
mythology, which among the Hindoos seemed so original
and simple as if it had been watered by the dews of life's
dawn.

To begin with, there was no doubt that the original
tongue itself, the mother of all the other Aryan languages,
had already been found when Zend or Sanscrit was dis-
covered. Fr. v. Schlegel, in his work published in 1808,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

on the Language and Wisdom of the Hindoos, regarded
Sanscrit as the mother of the Aryan family of languages,
and India as the original home of the Aryan family of
peoples. Thence, it was claimed, colonies were sent out
in prehistoric ages to other parts of Asia and to Europe ;
nay, even missionaries went forth to spread the language
and religion of the mother-country among other peoples.
Schlegel's compatriot Link looked upon Zend as the oldest
language and mother of Sanscrit, and the latter he re-
garded as the mother of the rest ; and as the Zend, in his
opinion, was spoken in Media and surrounding countries,
it followed that the highlands of Media, Armenia, and
Georgia were the original home of the Aryans, a view
which prevailed among the leading scholars of the age,
such as Anquetil-Duperron, Herder, and Heeren, and
found a place in the historical text-books used in the
schools from 1820 to 1840.

Since Bopp published his epoch-making Comparative
Grammar the illusion that the Aryan mother-tongue had
been discovered had, of course, gradually to give place
to the conviction that all the Aryan languages, Zend and
Sanscrit included, were relations of equal birth. This
also affected the theory that the Persians or Hindoos
were the original people, and that the cradle of our race
was to be sought in their homes.

On the other hand, the Hindooic writings were found
to contain evidence that, during the centuries in which
the most of the Rigveda songs were produced, the Hin-
dooic Aryans were possessors only of Kabulistan and
Pendschab, whence, either expelling or subjugating an

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

older black population, they had advanced toward the
Ganges. Their social condition was still semi-nomadic,
at least in the sense that their chief property consisted in
herds, and the feuds between the clans had for their
object the plundering of such possessions from each other.
Both these facts indicated that these Aryans were immi-
grants to the Indian peninsula, but not the aborigines,
wherefore their original home must be sought elsewhere.
The strong resemblance found between Zend and Sanscrit,
and which makes these dialects a separate subdivision in
the Aryan family of languages, must now, since we have
learned to regard them as sister-tongues, be interpreted
as a proof that the Zend people or Iranians and the San-
scrit people or Hindoos were in ancient times one people
with a common country, and that this union must have
continued to exist long after the European Aryans were
parted from them and had migrated westwards. When,
then, the question was asked where this Indo-Iranian
cradle was situated, the answer was thought to be found
in a chapter of Avesta, to which the German scholar
Rhode had called attention already in 1820. To him it
seemed to refer to a migration from a more northerly and
colder country. The passage speaks of sixteen countries
created by the fountain of light and goodness, Ormuzd
(Ahura Mazda), and of sixteen plagues produced by the
fountain of evil, Ahriman (Angra Mainyu), to destroy
the work of Ormuzd. The first country was a paradise,
but Ahriman ruined it with cold and frost, so that it had
ten months of winter and only two of summer. The
second country, in the name of which Sughda Sogdiana

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

was recognised, was rendered uninhabitable by Ahriman
by a pest which destroyed the domestic animals. Ahri-
man made the third (which by the way, was recognised
as Merv) impossible as a dwelling on account of never-
ceasing wars and plunderings. In this manner thirteen
other countries with partly recognisable names are enume-
rated as created by Ormuzd, and thirteen other plagues
produced by Ahriman. Rhode's view, that these sixteen
regions were stations in the migration of the Indo-Iranian
people from their original country became universally
adopted, and it was thought that the track of the migra-
tion could now be followed back through Persia, Baktria
and Sogdiana, up to the first region created by Ormuzd,
which, accordingly, must have been situated in the interior
highlands of Asia, around the sources of the Jaxartes
and Oxus. The reason for the emigration hence was
found in the statement that, although Ormuzd had made
this country an agreeable abode, Ahriman had destroyed
it with frost and snow. In other words, this part of
Asia was supposed to have had originally a warmer
temperature, which suddenly or gradually became lower,
wherefore the inhabitants found it necessary to seek new
homes in the West and South.

The view that the sources of Oxus and Jaxartes are the
original home of the Aryans is even now the prevailing
one, or at least the one most widely accepted, and since
the day of Rhode it has been supported and developed by
several distinguished scholars. Then Julius v. Klaproth
pointed out, already in 1830, that, among the many names
of various kinds of trees found in India, there is a single

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

one which they have in common with other Aryan peoples,
and this is the name of the birch. India has many kinds
of trees that do not grow in Central Asia, but the birch
is found both at the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes,
and on the southern spurs of the Himalaya mountains.
If the Aryan Hindoos immigrated from the highlands
of Central Asia to the regions through which the Indus
and Ganges seek their way to the sea, then it is natural,
that when they found on their way new unknown kinds
of trees, then they gave to these new names, but when
they discovered a tree with which they had long been
acquainted, then they would apply the old familiar name
to it. Mr. Lassen, the great scholar of Hindooic anti-
quities, gave new reasons for the theory that the Aryan
Hindoos were immigrants, who through the western pass
of Hindukush and through Kabulistan came to Pend-
schab, and thence slowly occupied the Indian peninsula.
That their original home, as well as that of their Iranian
kinsmen, was that part of the highlands of Central Asia
pointed out by Rhode, he found corroborated by the cir-
cumstance, that there are to be found there, even at the
present time, remnants of a people, the so-called Tad-
chiks, who speak Iranian dialects. According to Lassen,
these were to be regarded as direct descendants of the
original Aryan people, who remained in the original
home, while other parts of the same people migrated to
Baktria or Persia and became Iranians, or migrated down
to Pendschab and became Hindoos, or migrated to
Europe and became Celts, Greco-Italians, Teutons, and
Slavs. Jacob Grimm, whose name will always be men-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tioned with honour as the great pathfinder in the field of
Teutonic antiquities, was of the same opinion; and that
whole school of scientists who were influenced by roman-
ticism and by the philosophy of Schelling made haste to
add to the real support sought for the theory in ethno-
logical and philological facts, a support from the laws of
natural analogy and from poetry. A mountain range,
so it was said, is the natural divider of waters. From its
fountains the streams flow in different directions and
irrigate the plains. In the same manner the highlands
of Central Asia were the divider of Aryan folk-streams,
which through Baktria sought their way to the plains of
Persia, through the mountain passes of Hindukush to
India, through the lands north of the Caspian Sea to the
extensive plains of modern Russia, and so on to the more
inviting regions of Western Europe. The sun rises in
the east, ex oriente lux; the highly-gifted race, which was
to found the European nations, has, under the guidance
of Providence, like the sun, wended its way from east to
west. In taking a grand view of the subject, a mystic
harmony was found to exist between the apparent course
of the sun and the real migrations of people. The minds
of the people dwelling in Central and Eastern Asia
seemed to be imbued with a strange instinctive yearning.
The Aryan folk-streams, which in prehistoric times
deluged Europe, were in this respect the forerunners of
the hordes of Huns which poured in from Asia, and
which in the fourth century gave the impetus to the
Teutonic migrations, and of the Mongolian hordes which
in the thirteenth century invaded our continent. The

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Europeans themselves are led by this same instinct to
follow the course of the sun : they flow in great numbers
to America, and these folk-billows break against each
other on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean. "At the breast
of our Asiatic mother," thus exclaimed, in harmony with
the romantic school, a scholar with no mean linguistic
attainments — "at the breast of our Asiatic mother, the
Aryan people of Europe have rested ; around her as their
mother they have played as children. There or nowhere
is the playground ; there or nowhere is the gymnasium of
the first physical and intellectual efforts on the part of the
Aryan race.".

The theory that the cradle of the Aryan race stood in
Central Asia near the sources of the Indus and Jaxartes
had hardly been contradicted in 1850, and seemed to be
secured for the future by the great number of distin-
guished and brilliant names which had given their adhe-
sion to it. The need was now felt of clearing up the order
and details of these emigrations. All the light to be
thrown on this subject had to come from philology and
from the geography of plants and animals. The first
author who? in this manner and with the means indicated,
attempted to furnish proofs in detail that the ancient
Aryan land was situated around the Oxus river was
Adolphe Pictet. There, he claimed, the Aryan language
had been formed out of older non-Aryan dialects. There
the Aryan race, on account of its spreading over Baktria
and neighbouring regions, had divided itself into branches
of various dialects, which there, in a limited territory,
held the same geographical relations to each other as

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

they hold to each other at the present time in another
and immensely larger territory. In the East lived the
nomadic branch which later settled in India ; in the East,
too, but farther north, that branch herded their flocks,
which afterwards became the Iranian and took possession
of Persia. West of the ancestors of the Aryan Hindoos
dwelt the branch which later appears as the Greco-Italians
and north of the latter the common progenitors of Teutons
and Slavs had their home. In the extreme West dwelt
the Celts, and they were also the earliest emigrants to the
West. Behind them marched the ancestors of the Teu-
tons and Slavs by a more northern route to Europe.
The last in this procession to Europe were the ancestors
of the Greco-Italians, and for this reason their languages
have preserved more resemblance to those of the Indo-
Iranians who migrated into Southern Asia than those of
the other European Aryans. For this view Pictet gives
a number of reasons. According to him, the vocabulary
common to more or less of the Aryan branches preserves
names of minerals, plants, and animals which are found
in those latitudes, and in those parts of Asia which he
calls the original Aryan country.

The German linguist Schleicher has to some extent
discussed the same problem as Pictet in a series of works
published in the fifties and sixties. The same has been
done by the famous German-English scientist Max
Muller. Schleicher's theory, briefly stated, is the follow-
ing : The Aryan race originated in Central Asia. There,
in the most ancient Aryan country, the original Aryan
tongue was spoken for many generations. The people

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

multiplied and enlarged their territory, and in various
parts of the country they occupied, the language assumed
various forms, so that there were developed at least two
different languages before the great migrations began.
As the chief cause of the emigrations, Schleicher regards
the fact that the primitive agriculture practised by the
Aryans, including the burning of the forests, impoverished
the soil and had a bad effect on the climate. The prin-
ciples he laid down and tried to vindicate were: (1) The
farther East an Aryan people dwells, the more it has
preserved of the peculiarities of the original Aryan
tongue. (2) The farther West an Aryan-derived tongue
and daughter people are found, the earlier this language
was separated from the mother-tongue, and the earlier
this people became separated from the original stock.
Max Miiller holds the common view in regard to the
Asiatic origin of the Aryans. The main difference
between him and Schleicher is that Miiller assumes that
the Aryan tongue originally divided itself into an Asiatic
and an European branch. He accordingly believes that
all the Aryan-European tongues and all the Aryan-Euro-
pean peoples have developed from the same European
branch, while Schleicher assumes that in the beginning
the division produced a Teutonic and Letto-Slavic branch
on the one hand, and an Indo-Iranian, Greco-Italic, and
Celtic on the other.

This view of the origin of the Aryans had scarcely met
with any opposition when we entered the second half of
our century. We might add that it had almost ceased
to be questioned. The theory that the Aryans were

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

cradled in Asia seemed to be established as an historical
fact, supported by a mass of ethnographical, linguistic,
and historical arguments, and vindicated by a host of
brilliant scientific names.

THE HYPOTHESIS CONCERNING THE EUROPEAN ORIGIN OP
THE ARYANS.

In the year 1854 was heard for the first time a voice of
doubt. The sceptic was an English ethnologist, by name
Latham, who had spent many years in Russia studying
the natives of that country. Latham was unwilling to
admit that a single one of the many reasons given for the
Asiatic origin of our family of languages was conclusive,
or that the accumulative weight of all the reasons given
amounted to real evidence. He urged that they who at
the outset had treated this question had lost sight of the
rules of logic, and that in explaining a fact it is a mistake
to assume too many premises. The great fact which
presents itself and which is to be explained is this : There
are Aryans in Europe and there are Aryans in Asia. The
major part of Aryans are in Europe, and here the original
language has split itsdf into the greatest number of
idioms. From the main Aryan trunk in Europe only two
branches extend into Asia. The northern branch is a
new creation, consisting of Russian colonisation from
Europe; the southern branch, that is, the Iranian-Hin-
dooic, is, on the other hand, prehistoric, but was still
growing in the dawn of history, and the branch was then

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

growing from West to East, from Indus toward Ganges.
When historical facts to the contrary are wanting, then
the root of a great family of languages should naturally
be looked for in the ground which supports the trunk and
is shaded by the crown, and not underneath the ends of
the farthest-reaching branches. The mass of Mongo-
lians dwell in Eastern Asia, and for this very reason Asia
is accepted as the original home of the Mongolian race.
The great mass of Aryans live in Europe, and have lived
there as far back as history sheds a ray of light. Why,
then, not apply to the Aryans and to Europe the same
conclusions as hold good in the case of the Mongolians
and Asia? And why not apply to ethnology the same
principles as are admitted unchallenged in regard to the
geography of plants and animals? Do we not in botany
and zoology seek the original home and centre of a species
where it shows the greatest vitality, the greatest power of
multiplying and producing varieties? These questions,
asked by Latham, remained for some time unanswered,
but finally they led to a more careful examination of the
soundness of the reasons given for the Asiatic hypothesis.

The gist of Latham's protest is, that the question was
decided in favour of Asia without an examination of the
other possibility, and that in such an examination, if it
were undertaken, it would appear at the very outset that
the other possibility, that is, the European origin of the
Aryans — is more plausible, at least from the standpoint
of methodology.

This objection on the part of an English scholar did not
even produce an echo for many years, and it seemed to

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

be looked upon simply as a manifestation of that fondness
for eccentricity which we are wont to ascribe to his
nationality. He repeated his protest in 1862, but it still
took five years before it appeared to have made any
impression. In 1867, the celebrated linguist Whitney
came out, not to defend Latham's theory that Europe is
the cradle of the Aryan race, but simply to clear away the
widely spread error that the science of languages had
demonstrated the Asiatic origin of the Aryans. As
already indicated, it was especially Adolphe Pictet who
had given the first impetus to this illusion in his great
work Origines indo-curopeennes. Already, before Whit-
ney, the Germans Weber and Kuhn had, without attack-
ing the Asiatic hypothesis, shown that the most of Pictet's
arguments failed to prove that for which they were
intended. Whitney now came and refuted them all with-
out exception, and at the same time he attacked the
assumption made by Rhode, and until that time univer-
sally accepted, that a record of an Aryan emigration from
the highlands of Central Asia was to be found in that
chapter of Avesta which speaks of the sixteen lands
created by Ormuzd for the good of man, but which
Ahriman destroyed by sixteen different plagues. Avesta
does not with a single word indicate that the first of
these lands which Ahriman destroyed with snow and
frost is to be regarded as the original home of the Iran-
ians, or that they ever in the past emigrated from any of
them. The assumption that a migration record of histor-
ical value conceals itself within this geographical mytho-
logical sketch is a mere conjecture, and yet it was made

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the very basis of the hypothesis so confidently built upon
for years about Central Asia as the starting-point of
the Aryans.

The following year, 1868, a prominent German linguist
— Mr. Benfey — came forward and definitely took La-
tham's side. He remarked at the outset . that hitherto
geological investigations had found the oldest traces of
human existence in the soil of Europe, and that, so long
as this is the case, there is no scientific fact which can
admit the assumption that the present European stock
has immigrated from Asia after the quaternary period.
The mother-tongues of many of the dialects which from
time immemorial have been spoken in Europe may just
as well have originated on this continent as the mother-
tongues of the Mongolian dialects now spoken in Eastern
Asia have originated where the descendants now dwell.
That the Aryan mother-tongue originated in Europe, not
in Asia, Benfey found probably on the following grounds :
In Asia, lions are found even at the present time as far
to the north as ancient Assyria, and the tigers make
depredations over the highlands of Western Iran, even
to the coasts of the Caspian Sea. These great beasts of
prey are known and named even among Asiatic people
who dwell north of their habitats. If, therefore, the
ancient Aryans had lived in a country visited by these
animals, or if they had been their neighbours, they cer-
tainly would have had names for them ; but we find that
the Aryan Hindoos call the lion by a word not formed
from an Aryan root, and that the Aryan Greeks borrowed
the word lion (Us, Icon} from a Semitic language.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

(There is, however, division of opinion on this point.)
Moreover, the Aryan languages have borrowed the word
camel, by which the chief beast of burden in Asia is
called. The home of this animal is Baktria, or precisely
that part of Central Asia in the vicinity of which an effort
has been made to locate the cradle of the Aryan tongue.
Ben fey thinks the ancient Aryan country has been situated
in Europe, north of the Black Sea, between the mouth of
the Danube and the Caspian Sea.

Since the presentation of this argument, several defend-
ers of the European hypothesis have come forward, among
them Geiger, Cuno, Friedr. Miiller, Spiegel, Posche, and
more recently Schrader and Penka. Schrader's work,
Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, contains an excel-
lent general review of the history of the question, original
contributions to its solution, and a critical but cautious
opinion in regard to its present position. In France, too,
the European hypothesis has found many adherents.
Geiger found, indeed, that the cradle of the Aryan race
was to be looked for much farther to the west than Benfey
and others had supposed. His hypothesis, based on the
evidence furnished by the geography of plants, places the
ancient Aryan land in Germany. The cautious Schrader,
who dislikes to deal with conjectures, regards the ques-
tion as undecided, but he weighs the arguments presented
by the various sides, and reaches the conclusion that those
in favour of the European origin of the Aryans are the
stronger, but that they are not conclusive. Schrader
himself, through his linguistic and historical investiga-
tions, has been led to believe that the Aryans, while they

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

still were one people, belonged to the stone age, and had
not yet become acquainted with the use of metals.

THE ARYAN IvAND OF EUROPE.

On one point — and that is for our purpose the most
important one — the advocates of both hypotheses have
approached each other. The leaders of the defenders of
the Asiatic hypothesis have ceased to regard Asia as the
cradle of all the dialects into which the ancient Aryan
tongue has been divided. While they cling to the theory
that the Aryan inhabitants of Europe have immigrated
from Asia, they have well-nigh entirely ceased to claim
that these peoples, already before their departure from
their Eastern home, were so distinctly divided linguisti-
cally that it was necessary to imagine certain branches of
the race speaking Celtic, others Teutonic, others, again,
Greco-Italian, even before they came to Europe. The
prevailing opinion among the advocates of the Asiatic
hypothesis now doubtless is, that the Aryans who immi-
grated to Europe formed one homogeneous mass, which
gradually on our continent divided itself definitely into
Celts, Teutons, Slavs, and Greco-Italians. The adherents
of both hypotheses have thus been able to agree that there
has been a European- Aryan country. And the question
as to where it was located is of the most vital importance,
as it is closely connected with the question of the original
home of the Teutons, since the ancestors of the Teutons
must have inhabited this ancient European- Aryan country.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Philology has attempted to answer the former question
by comparing all the words of all the Aryan-European
languages. The attempt has many obstacles to over-
come; for, as Schrader has remarked, the ancient words
which to-day are common to all or several of these lan-
guages are presumably a mere remnant of the ancient
'European-Aryan vocabulary. Nevertheless, it is possible
to arrive at important results in this manner, if we draw
conclusions from the words that remain, but take care not
to draw conclusions from what is wanting.

Trie view gained in this manner is, briefly stated, as
follows :

The Aryan country of Europe has been situated in
latitudes where snow and ice are common phenomena.
The people who have emigrated thence to more southern
climes have not forgotten either the one or the other name
of those phenomena. To a comparatively northern
latitude points also the circumstance that the ancient
European Aryans recognised only three seasons — winter,
spring, and summer. This division of the year con-
tinued among the Teutons even in the days of Tacitus.
For autumn they had no name.

Many words for mountains, valley, streams, and brooks
common to all the languages show that the European-
Aryan land was not wanting in elevations, rocks, and
flowing waters. Nor has it been a treeless plain. This
is proven by many names of trees. The trees are fir,
birch, willow, elm, elder, hazel, and a beech called bhaga,
which means a tree with eatable fruit. From this word
bhaga is derived the Greek phegos, the Latin fagus, the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

German Buche, and the Swedish bok. But it is a remark-
able fact that the Greeks did not call the beech but the
oak phegos, while the Romans called the beech fagus.
From this we conclude that the European Aryans applied
the word bhaga both to the beech and the oak, since both
bear similar fruit; but in some parts of the country the
name was particularly applied to the beech, in others to
the oak. The beech is a species of tree which gradually
approaches the north. On the European continent it is
not found east of a line drawn from Konigsberg across
Poland and Podolia to Crimea. This leads to the con-
clusion that the Aryan country of Europe must to a great
extent have been situated west of this line, and that the
regions inhabited by the ancestors of the Romans, and
north of them by the progenitors of the Teutons, must be
looked for west of this botanical line, and between the
Alps and the North Sea.

Linguistic comparisons also show that the Aryan terri-
tory of Europe was situated near an ocean or large body
of water. Scandinavians, Germans, Celts, and Romans
have preserved a common name for the ocean — the Old
Norse mar, the Old High German man, the Latin mare.
The names of certain sea-animals are also common to
various Aryan languages. The Swedish hummer (lob-
ster) corresponds to the Greek kamaros, and the Swed-
ish sal ( seal ) to the Greek selachos.

In the Aryan country of Europe there were domestic
animals — cows, sheep, and goats. The horse was also
known, but it is uncertain whether it was used for riding
or driving, or simply valued on account of its flesh and

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

milk. On the other hand, the ass was not known, its
domain being particularly the plains of Central Asia.

The bear, wolf, otter, and beaver certainly belonged to
the fauna of Aryan Europe.

The European Aryans must have cultivated at least
one, perhaps two kinds of grain; also flax, the name of
which is preserved in the Greek linon (linen), the Latin
linum, and in other languages.

The Aryans knew the art of brewing mead from honey.
That they also understood the art of drinking it even to
excess may be taken for granted. This drink was dear
to the hearts of the ancient Aryans, and its name has
been faithfully preserved both by the tribes that settled
near the Ganges, and by those who emigrated to Great
Britain. The Brahmin by the Ganges still knows this
beverage as madhu, the Welchman has known it as
medu, the Lithuanian as medus; and when the Greek
Aryans came to Southern Europe and became acquainted
with wine, they gave it the name of mead (methu).

It is not probable that the European Aryans knew
bronze or iron, or, if they did know any of the metals,
had any large quantity or made any daily use of them,
so long as they linguistically formed one homogeneous
body, and lived in that part of Europe which we here call
the Aryan domain. The only comman name for metal is
that which we find in the Latin aes (copper), in the Gothic
aiz, and in the Hindooic dyas. As is known, the Latin
aes, like the Gothic aiz, means both copper and bronze.
That the word originally meant copper, and afterwards
came to signify bronze, which is an alloy of copper and

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tin, seems to be a matter of course, and that it was applied
only to copper and not to bronze among the ancient
Aryans seems clear not only because a common name for
tin is wanting, but also for the far better and remarkable
reason particularly pointed out by Schrader, that all the
Aryan European languages, even those which are nearest
akin to each other and are each other's neighbours, lack
a common word for the tools of a smith and the inventory
of a forge, and also for the various kinds of weapons of
defence and attack. Most of all does it astonish us, that
in respect to weapons the dissimilarity of names is so
complete in the Greek and Roman tongues. Despite this
fact, the ancient Aryans have certainly used various kinds
of weapons — the club, the hammer, the axe, the knife,
the spear, and the crossbow. All these weapons are of such
a character that they could be made of stone, wood, and
horn. Things more easily change names when the older
materials of which they were made give place to new hith-
erto unknown materials. It is, therefore, probable that
the European Aryans were in the stone age, and at best
were acquainted with copper before and during the period
when their language was divided into several dialects.

Where, then, on our continent was the home of this
Aryan European people in the stone age? Southern
Europe, with its peninsulas extending into the Mediter-
ranean, must doubtless have been outside of the bound-
aries of the Aryan land of Europe. The Greek Aryans
have immigrated to Hellas, and the Italian Aryans are
immigrants to the Italian peninsula. Spain has even
within historical times been inhabited by Iberians and

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Basques, and Basques dwell there at present: If, as the
linguistic monuments seem to prove, the European
Aryans lived near an ocean, this cannot have been the
Mediterranean Sea. There remain the Black and Caspian
Sea on the one hand, the Baltic and the North Sea on the
other. But if, as the linguistic monuments likewise
seem to prove, the European Aryans for a great part, at
least, lived west of a botanical line indicated by the beech
in a country producing fir, oak, elm, and elder, then they
could not have been limited to the treeless plains which
extend along the Black Sea from the mouth of the Dan-
ube, through Dobrudscha, Bessarabia, and Cherson, past
the Crimea. Students of early Greek history do not any
longer assume that the Hellenic immigrants found their
way through these countries to Greece, but that they came
from the north-west and followed the Adriatic down to
Epirus; in other words, they came the same way as the
Visigoths under Alarik, and the Eastgoths under Theo-
doric in later times. Even the Latin tribes came from
the north. The migrations of the Celts, so far as history
sheds any light on the subject, were from the north and
west toward the south and east. The movements of the
Teutonic races were from north to south, and they
migrated both eastward and westward. Both prehistoric
and historic facts thus tend to establish the theory that
the Aryan domain of Europe, within undefinable limits,
comprised the central and north part of Europe; and as
one or more seas were known to these Aryans, we cannot
exclude from the limits of this knowledge the ocean
penetrating the north of Europe from the west.

3 25

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

On account of their undeveloped agriculture, which
compelled them to depend chiefly on cattle for their
support, the European Aryans must have occupied an
extensive territory. Of the mutual position and of the
movements of the various tribes within this territory
nothing can be stated, except that sooner or later, but
already away back in prehistoric times, they must have
occupied precisely the position in which we find them at
the dawn of history and which they now hold. The
Aryan tribes which first entered Gaul must have lived
west of those tribes which became the progenitors of the
Teutons, and the latter must have lived west of those
who spread an Aryan language over Russia. South of
this line, but still in Central Europe, there must have
dwelt another body of Aryans, the ancestors of the Greeks
and Romans, the latter west of the former. Farthest to
the north of all these tribes must have dwelt those people
who afterwards produced the Teutonic tongue.

B. ANCIENT TEUTONDOM (GERMANIEN).

THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION Of ANCIENT TEUTONDOM.
THE STONE AGE OF PREHISTORIC TEUTONDOM.

The northern position of the ancient Teutons necessar-
ily had the effect that they, better than all other Aryan
people, preserved their original race-type, as they were
less exposed to mixing with non-Aryan elements. In the
south, west, and east, they had kinsmen, separating them

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

from non-Aryan races. To the north, on the other hand,
lay a territory which, by its very nature, could be but
sparsely populated, if it was inhabited at all, before it was
occupied by the fathers of the Teutons. The Teutonic
type, which doubtless also was the Aryan in general
before much spreading and consequent mixing with other
races had taken place, has, as already indicated, been
described in the following manner : Tall, white skin, blue
eyes, fair hair. Anthropological science has given them
one more mark — they are dolicocephalous, that is, having
skulls whose anterior-posterior diameter, or that from
the frontal to the occipital bone, exceeds the transverse
diameter. This type appears most pure in the modern
Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and to some extent the
Dutch, in the inhabitants of those parts of Great Britain
that are most densely settled by Saxon and Scandinavian
emigrants; and in the people of certain parts of North
Germany. Welcker's craniological measurements give
the following figures for the breadth and length of Teu-
tonic skulls :

Swedes and Hollanders, .... 75 — 71

Icelanders and Danes, .... 76 — 71

Englishmen, 76 — 73

Holsteinians, 77 — 71

Hanoverians, )

I rtrt nn

The vicinity of Jena, Bonn, and Cologne, J

Hessians, 79 — 72

Swabians, 79 — 73

Bavarians, 80 — 74

Thus the dolicocephalous form passes in Middle and
Southern Germany into the brachycephalous. The inves-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tigations made at the suggestion of Virchow in Germany,
Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria, in regard to blonde
and brunette types, are of great interest. An examina-
tion of more than nine million individuals showed the
following result:

Germany, 31.80% blonde, 14.05% brunette, 54.15% mixed.

Austria, 19.79% blonde, 23.17% brunette, 57.04% mixed.

Switzerland, 11.10% blonde, 25.70% brunette, 61.40% mixed.

Thus the blonde type has by far a greater number of
representatives in Germany than in the southern part of
Central Europe, though the latter has German-speaking
inhabitants. In Germany itself the blonde type decreases
and the brunette increases from north to south, while at
the same time the dolicocephalous gives place to the bra-
chycephalous. Southern Germany has 25% of brunettes,
North Germany only 7%.

If we now, following the strict rules of methodology
which Latham insists on, bear in mind that the cradle of
a race- or language-type should, if there are no definite
historical facts to the contrary, especially be looked for
where this type is most abundant and least changed, then
there is no doubt that the part of Aryan Europe which the
ancestors of the Teutons inhabited when they developed
the Aryan tongue into the Teutonic must have included
the coast of the Baltic and the North Sea. This theory
is certainly not contradicted, but, on the other hand, sup-
ported by the facts so far as we have any knowledge of
them. Roman history supplies evidence that the same
parts of Europe in which the Teutonic type predominates
at the present time were Teutonic already at the beginning

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of our era, and that then already the Scandinavian penin-
sula was inhabited by a North Teutonic people, which,
among their kinsmen on the Continent, were celebrated
for their wealth in ships and warriors. Centuries must
have passed ere the Teutonic colonisation of the peninsula
could have developed into so much strength — centuries
during which, judging from all indications, the transition
from the bronze to the iron age in Scandinavia must have
taken place. The painstaking investigations of Monte-
lius, conducted on the principle of methodology, have led
him' to the conclusion that Scandinavia and North Ger-
many formed during the bronze age one common domain
of culture in regard to weapons and implements. The
manner in which the other domains of culture group
themselves in Europe leaves no other place for the Teu-
tonic race than Scandinavia and North Germany, and
possibly Austria-Hungary, which the Teutonic domain
resembles most. Back of the bronze age lies the stone
age. The examinations, by v. Duben, Gustaf Retzius,
and Virchow, of skeletons found in northern graves from
the stone age prove the existence at that time of a race
in the North which, so far as the characteristics of the
skulls are concerned, cannot be distinguished from the race
now dwelling there. Here it is necessary to take into
consideration the results of probability reached by com-
parative philology, showing that the European Aryans
were still in the stone age when they divided themselves
into Celts, Teutons, etc., and occupied separate territories,
and the fact that the Teutons, so far back c.s conclusions
may be drawn from historical knowledge have occupied

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

a more northern domain than their kinsmen. Thus all
tends to show that when the Scandinavian peninsula was
first settled by Aryans — doubtless coming from the South
by way of Denmark — these Aryans belonged to the same
race, which, later in history, appear with a Teutonic phy-
siognomy and with Teutonic speech, and that their immi-
gration to and occupation of the southern parts of the
peninsula took place in the time of the Aryan stone age.

For the history of civilisation, and particularly for
mythology, these results are important. It is a problem
to be solved by comparative mythology what elements in
the various groups of Aryan myths may be the original
common property of the race while the race was yet
undivided. The conclusions reached gain in trustworth-
iness the further the Aryan tribes, whose myths are
compared, are separated from each other geographically.
If, for instance, the Teutonic mythology on the one hand
and the Asiatic Aryan (Avesta and Rigveda) on the
other are made the subject of comparative study, and if
groups of myths are found which are identical not only
in their general character and in many details, but also
in the grouping of the details and the epic connection of
the myths, then the probability that they belong to an
age when the ancestors of the Teutons and those of the
Asiatic Aryans dwelt together is greater, in the same
proportion as the probability of an intimate and detailed
exchange of ideas after the separation grows less between
these tribes on account of the geographical distance. With
all the certainty which it is possible for research to arrive
at in this field, we may assume that these common groups

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of myths — at least the centres around which they revolve
— originated at a time when the Aryans still formed, so
to speak, a geographical and linguistic unity — in all prob-
ability at a time which lies far back in a common Aryan
stone age. The discovery of groups of myths of this
sort thus sheds light on beliefs and ideas that existed in
the minds of our ancestors in an age of which we have no
information save that which we get from the study of
the finds. The latter, when investigated by painstaking
and penetrating archaeological scholars, certainly give us
highly instructive information in other directions. In
this manner it becomes possible to distinguish between
older and younger elements of Teutonic mythology, and
to secure a basis for studying its development through
centuries which have left us no literary monuments.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY
II.

A. MEDIAEVAL MIGRATION SAGAS.

THE DARNED SAGA IN REGARD TO THE EMIGRATION FROM
TROY-ASGARD.

THE SAGA IN HEIMSKRINGLA AND THE PROSE EDDA.

In the preceding pages we have given the reasons which
make it appear proper to assume that ancient Teutondom,
within certain indefinable limits, included the coasts of
the Baltic and the North Sea, that the Scandinavian
countries constituted a part of this ancient Teutondom,
and that they have been peopled by Teutons since the days
of the stone age.

The subject which I am now about to discuss requires
an investigation in reference to what the Teutons them-
selves believed, in regard to this question, in the earliest
times of which we have knowledge. Did they look upon
themselves as aborigines or as immigrants in Teutondom ?
For the mythology, the answer to this question is of
great weight. For pragmatic history, on the other hand,
the answer is of little importance, for whatever they
believed gives no reliable basis for conclusions in regard
to historical facts. If they regarded themselves as aborig-
ines, this does not hinder their having immigrated in

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

prehistoric times, though their traditions have ceased to
speak of it. If they regarded themselves as immigrants,
then it does not follow that the traditions, in regard to the
immigration, contain any historical kernel. Of the
former we have an example in the case of the Brahmins
and the higher castes in India: their orthodoxy requires
them to regard themselves as aborigines of the country
in which they live, although there is evidence that they are
immigrants. Of the latter the Swedes are an example:
the people here have been taught to believe that a greater
or less portion of the inhabitants of Sweden are descended
from immigrants who, led by Odin, are supposed to have
come here about one hundred years before the birth of
Christ, and that this immigration, whether it brought
many or few people, was of the most decisive influence on
the culture of the country, so that Swedish history might
properly begin with the moment when Odin planted his
feet on Swedish soil.

The more accessible sources of the traditions in regard
to Odin's immigration to Scandinavia are found in the
Icelandic works, Heimskringla and the Prose Edda.
Both sources are from the same time, that is, the thir-
teenth century, and are separated by more than two hun-
dred years from the heathen age in Iceland.

We will first consider Heimskringla's story. A river,
by name Tanakvisl, or Vanakvisl, empties into the Black
Sea. This river separates Asia from Europe. East of
Tanakvisl, that is to say, then in Asia, is a country form-
erly called Asaland or Asaheim, and the chief citadel or
town in that country was called Asgard. It was a great

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

city of sacrifices, and there dwelt a chief who was known
by the name Odin. Under him ruled twelve men who
were high-priests and judges. Odin was a great chief-
tain and conqueror, and so victorious was he, that his men
believed that victory was wholly inseparable from him.
If he laid his blessing hand on anybody's head, success
was sure to attend him. Even if he was absent, if called
upon in distress or danger, his very name seemed to give
comfort. He frequently went far away, and often
remained absent half-a-year at a time. His kingdom
was then ruled by his brothers Vile and Ve. Once he
was absent so long that the Asas believed that he would
never return. Then his brothers married his wife Frigg.
Finally he returned, however, and took Frigg back again.
The Asas had a people as their neighbours called the
Vans. Odin made war on the Vans, but they defended
themselves bravely. When both parties had been victori-
ous and suffered defeat, they grew weary of warring,
made peace, and exchanged hostages. The Vans sent
their son Njord and his son Frey, and also Kvaser, as
hostages to the Asas; and the latter gave in exchange
Honer and Mimer. Odin gave Njord and Frey the
dignity of priests. Frey's sister, too, Freyja, was made
a priestess. The Vans treated the hostages they had
received with similar consideration, and created Honer a
chief and judge. But they soon seemed to discover that
Honer was a stupid fellow. They considered themselves
cheated in the exchange, and, being angry on this account,
they cut off the head, not of Honer, but of his wise brother
Mimer, and sent it to Odin. He embalmed the head,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

sang magic songs over it, so that it could talk to him and
tell him many strange things.

Asaland, where Odin ruled is separated by a great
mountain range from Tyrkland, by which Heimskringla
means Asia Minor, of which the celebrated Troy was
supposed to have been the capital. In Tyrkland, Odin
also had great possessions. But at that time the Romans
invaded and subjugated all lands, and many rulers fled
on that account from their kingdoms. And Odin, being
wise and versed in the magic art, and knowing, therefore,
that his descendants were to people the northern part of
the world, he left his kingdom to his brothers Vile and
Ve, and migrated with many followers to Gardarike,
Russia. Njord, Frey, and Freyja, and the other priests
who had ruled under him in Asgard, accompanied him,
and sons of his were also with him. From Gardarike he
proceeded to Saxland, conquered vast countries, and made
his sons rulers over them. From Saxland he went to
Funen, and settled there. Seeland did not then exist.
Odin sent the maid Gefion north across the water to inves-
tigate what country was situated there. At that time
ruled in Svithiod a chief by name Gylfe. He gave Gefion
a ploughland,* and, by the help of four giants changed
into oxen, Gefion cut out with the plough, and dragged
into the sea near Funen that island which is now called
Seeland. Where the land was ploughed away there is
now a lake called Logrin. Skjold, Odin's son, got this
land, and married Gefion. And when Gefion informed
Odin that Gylfe possessed a good land, Odin went thither,

*As much land as can be ploughed in a day.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and Gylfe, being unable to make resistance, though he too
was a wise man skilled in witchcraft and sorcery, a peace-
ful compact was made, according to which Odin acquired
a vast territory around Logrin ; and in Sigtuna he estab-
lished a great temple, where sacrifices henceforth were of-
fered according to the custom of the Asas. To his priests
he gave dwellings — Noatun to Njord, Upsala to Frey,
Himminbjorg to Heimdal, Thrudvang to Thor, Breidab-
lik to Balder, &c. Many new sports came to the North with
Odin, and he and the Asas taught them to the people.
Among other things, he taught them poetry and runes.
Odin himself always talked in measured rhymes.
Besides, he was a most excellent sorcerer. He could
change shape, make his foes in a conflict blind and deaf ;
he was a wizard, and could wake the dead. He owned
the ship Skidbladner, which could be folded as a napkin.
He had two ravens, which he had taught to speak, and
they brought him tidings from all lands. He knew where
all treasures wrere hid in the earth, and could call them
forth with the aid of magic songs. Among the customs
he introduced in the North were cremation of the dead,
the raising of mounds in memory of great men, the
erection of bauta-stones in commemoration of others;
and he introduced the three great sacrificial feasts — for
a good year, for good crops, and for victory. Odin died
in Svithiod. When he perceived the approach of death,
he suffered himself to be marked with the point of a spear,
and declared that he was going to Gudheim to visit his
friends and receive all fallen in battle. This the Swedes
believed. They have since worshipped him in the belief

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

that he had an eternal life in the ancient Asgard, and
they thought he revealed himself to them before great
battles took place. On Svea's throne he was followed by
Njord, the progenitor of the race of Ynglings. Thus
Heimskringla.

We now pass to the Younger Edda,* which in its Fore-
word gives us in the style of that time a general survey
of history and religion.

First, it gives from the Bible the story of creation and
the deluge. Then a long story is told of the building
of the tower of Babel. The descendants of Noah's son,
Ham, warred against and conquered the sons of Sern,
and tried in their arrogance to build a tower which should
aspire to heaven itself. The chief manager in this enter-
prise was Zoroaster, and seventy-two master-masons and
joiners served under him. But God confounded the
tongues of these arrogant people so that each one of the
seventy-two masters with those under him got their own
language, which the others could not understand, and
then each went his own way, and in this manner arose
the seventy-two different languages in the world. Be-
fore that time only one language was spoken, and that
was Hebrew. Where they tried to build the tower a city
was founded and called Babylon. There Zoroaster
became a king and ruled over many Assyrian nations,
among which he introduced idolatry, and which wor-
shiped him as Baal. The tribes that departed with his
master-workmen also fell into idolatry, excepting the

*A translation of the Younger or Prose Edda was edited by R. B. Ander-
son and published by S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago, in 1881.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

one tribe which kept the Hebrew language. It preserved
also the original and pure faith. Thus, while Babylon
became one of the chief altars of heathen worship, the
island Crete became another. There was born a man,
by name Saturnus, who became for the Cretans and
Macedonians what Zoroaster was for the Assyrians.
Saturnus' knowledge and skill in magic, and his art of
producing gold from red-hot iron, secured him the power
of a prince on Crete; and as he, moreover, had control
over all invisible forces, the Cretans and Macedonians
believed that he was a god, and he encouraged them in
this faith. He had three sons — Jupiter, Neptunus, and
Plutus. Of these, Jupiter resembled his father in skill
and magic, and he was a great warrior who conquered
many peoples. When Saturnus divided his kingdom
among his sons, a feud arose. Plutus got as his share
hell, and as this was the least desirable part he also
received the dog named Cerberus. Jupiter, who received
heaven, was not satisfied with this, but wanted the earth
too. He made war against his father, who had to seek
refuge in Italy, where he, out of fear of Jupiter, changed
his name and called himself Njord, and where he became
a useful king, teaching the inhabitants, who lived on nuts
and roots, to plough and plant vineyards.

Jupiter had many sons. From one of them, Dardanus,
descended in the fifth generation Priamus of Troy.
Priamus' son was Hektor, who in stature and strength was
the foremost man in the world. From the Trojans the
Romans are descended ; and when Rome had grown to
be a great power it adopted many laws and customs which

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

had prevailed among the Trojans before them. Troy
was situated in Tyrkland, near the centre of the earth.
Under Priamus, the chief ruler, there were twelve tribu-
tary kings, and they spoke twelve languages. These
twelve tributary kings were exceedingly wise men; they
received the honour of gods, and from them all European
chiefs are descended. One of these twelve was called
Munon or Mennon. He was married to a daughter of
Priamus, and had with her the son Tror, "whom we call
Thor." He was a very handsome man, his hair shone
fairer than gold, and at the age of twelve he was full-
grown, and so strong that he could lift twelve bear-skins
at the same time. He slew his foster-father and foster-
mother, took possession of his foster-father's kingdom
Thracia, "which we call Thrudheim," and thenceforward
he roamed about the world, conquering berserks, giants,
the greatest dragon, and other prodigies. In the North
he met a prophetess by name Sibil (Sibylla), "whom we
call Sif," and her he married. In the twentieth genera-
tion from this Thor, Vodin descended, "whom we call
Odin," a very wise and well-informed man, who married
Frigida, "whom we call Frigg."

At that time the Roman general Pompey was making
wars in the East, and also threatened the empire of Odin.
Meanwhile Odin and his wife had learned through pro-
phetic inspiration that a glorious future awaited them in
the northern part of the world. He therefore emigrated
from Tyrkland, and took with him many people, old
and young, men and women, and costly treasures.
Wherever they came they appeared to the inhabitants

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

more like gods than men. And they did not stop before
they came as far north as Saxland. There Odin remained
a long time. One of his sons, Veggdegg, he appointed
king of Saxland. Another son, Beldegg, "whom we
call Balder," he made king in Westphalia. A third son,
Sigge, became king in Frankland. Then Odin proceeded
farther to the north and came to Reidgothaland, which
is now called Jutland, and there took possession of as
much as he wanted. There he appointed his son Skjold
as king; then he came to Svithiod.

Here ruled king Gylfe. When he heard of the expedi-
tion of Odin and his Asiatics he went to meet them, and
offered Odin as much land and as much power in his
kingdom as he might desire. One reason why people
everywhere gave Odin so hearty a welcome and offered
him land and power was that wherever Odin and his
men tarried on their journey the people got good harvests
and abundant crops, and therefore they believed that Odin
and his men controlled the weather and the growing
grain. Odin went with Gylfe up to the lake "Logrin"
and saw that the land was good; and there he chose as
his citadel the place which is called Sigtuna, founding
there the same institutions as had existed in Troy, and
to which the Turks were accustomed. Then he organised
a council of twelve men, who were to make laws and
settle disputes. From Svithiod Odin went to Norway,
and there made his son Sseming king. But the ruling of
Svithiod he had left to his son Yngve, from whom the
race of Ynglings are descended. The Asas and their sons
married the women of the land of which they had taken

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

possession, and their descendants, who preserved the lan-
guage spoken in Troy, multiplied so fast that the Trojan
language displaced the old tongue and became the speech
of Svithiod, Norway, Denmark, and Saxland, and there-
after also of England.

The Prose Edda's first part, Gylfaginning, consists of a
collection of mythological tales told to the reader in the
form of a conversation between the above-named king of
Sweden, Gylfe, and the Asas. Before the Asas had
started on their journey to the North, it is here said Gylfe
had learned that they were a wise and knowing people
who had success in all their undertakings. And believing
that this was a result either of the nature of these people,
or of their peculiar kind of worship, he resolved to inves-
tigate the matter secretly, and therefore betook himself
in the guise of an old man to Asgard. But the foreknow-
ing Asas knew in advance that he was coming, and
resolved to receive him with all sorts of sorcery, which
might give him, a high opinion of them. He finally came
to a citadel, the roof of which was thatched with golden
shields, and the hall of which was so large that he scarcely
could see the whole of it. At the entrance stood a man
playing with sharp tools, which he threw up in the air
and caught again with his hands, and seven axes were
in the air at the same time. This man asked the traveller
his name. The latter answered that he was named Gang-
lere, that he had made a long journey over rough roads,
and asked for lodgings for the night. He also asked
whose the citadel was. The juggler answered that it
belonged to their king, and conducted Gylfe into the hall,

4 41

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

where many people were assembled. Some sat drinking,
others amused themselves at games, and still others were
practising with weapons. There were three high-seats in
the hall, one above the other, and in each high-seat sat
a man. In the lowest sat the king; and the juggler
informed Gylfe that the king's name was Har; that the
one who sat next above him was named Jafnhar; and
that the one who sat on the highest throne was named
Thride (thridi). Har asked the stranger what his errand
was, and invited him to eat and drink. Gylfe answered
that he first wished to know whether there was any wise
man in the hall. Har replied that the stranger should
not leave the hall whole unless he was victorious in a
contest in wisdom. Gylfe now begins his questions,
which all concern the worship of the Asas, and the three
men in the high-seats give him answers. Already in the
first answer it appears that the Asgard to which Gylfe
thinks he has come is, in the opinion of the author, a
younger Asgard, and presumably the same as the author
of Heimskringla places beyond the river Tanakvisl, but
there had existed an older Asgard identical with Troy in
Tyrkland, where, according to Heimskringla, Odin had
extensive possessions at the time when the Romans began
their invasions in the East. When Gylfe with his ques-
tions had learned the most important facts in regard to
the religion of Asgard, and had at length been instructed
concerning the destruction and regeneration of the world,
he perceived a mighty rumbling and quaking, and when
he looked about him the citadel and hall had disappeared,
and he stood beneath the open sky. He returned to Svit-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

hiod and related all that he had seen and heard among
the Asas ; but when he had gone they counselled together,
and they agreed to call themselves by those names which
they used in relating their stories to Gylfe. These sagas,
remarks Gylfaginning, were in reality none but historical
events transformed into traditions about divinities. They
described events which had occurred in the older Asgard
— that is to say? Troy. The basis of the stories told to
Gylfe about Thor were the achievements of Hektor in
Troy, and the Loke of whom Gylfe had heard was, in
fact, none other than Ulixes (Ulysses), who was the foe
of the Trojans, and consequently was represented as the
foe of the gods.

Gylfaginning is followed by another part of the Prose
Edda called Bragaroeduy (Brage's Talk), which is pre-
sented in a similar form. On Lesso, so it is said, dwelt
formerly a man by name Mgir. He, like Gylfe, had heard
reports concerning the wisdom of the Asas, and resolved
to visit them. He, like Gylfe, comes to a place where
the Asas receive him with all sorts of magic arts, and
conduct him into a hall which is lighted up in the evening
with shining swords. There he is invited to take his
seat by the side of Brage, and there were twelve high-seats
in which sat men who were called Thor, Njord, Frey, &c.,
and women who were called Frigg, Freyja, Nanna, &c.
The hall was splendidly decorated with shields. The
mead passed round was exquisite, and the talkative Brage
instructed the guest in the traditions concerning the Asas'
art of poetry. A postscript to the treatise warns young
skalds not to place confidence in the stories told to Gylfe

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and &gir. The author of the postscript says they have
value only as a key to the many metaphors which occur
in the poems of the great skalds, but upon the whole they
are deceptions invented by the Asas or Asiamen to make
people believe that they were gods. Still, the author
thinks these falsifications have an historical kernel. They
are, he thinks, based on what happened in the ancient
Asgard, that is, Troy. Thus, for instance, Ragnarok is
originally nothing else than the siege of Troy; Thor is,
as stated, Hektor; the Midgard-serpent is one of the
heroes slain by Hektor; the Fenris-wolf is Pyrrhus, son
of Achilles, who slew Priam (Odin) ; and Vidar, who
survives Ragnarok, is ^Eneas.

THE TROY SAGA IN HEIMSKRINGLA AND THE PROSE EDDA

(continued).

The sources of the traditions concerning the Asiatic
immigration to the North belong to the Icelandic litera-
ture, and to it alone. Saxo's Historic, Danica, the first
books of which were written toward the close of the
twelfth century, presents on this topic its own peculiar
view, which will be discussed later. The Icelandic
accounts disagree only in unimportant details ; the funda-
mental view is the same, and they have flown from the
same fountain vein. Their contents may be summed up
thus:

Among the tribes who after the Babylonian confusion
of tongues emigrated to various countries, there was a

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

body of people who settled and introduced their language
in Asia Minor, which in the sagas is called Tyrkland; in
Greece, which in the sagas is called Macedonia; and in
Crete. In Tyrkland they founded the great city which
was called Troy. This city was attacked by the Greeks
during the reign of the Trojan king Priam. Priam
descended from Jupiter and the latter's father Saturnus,
and accordingly belonged to a race which the idolaters
looked upon as divine. Troy was a very large city;
twelve languages were spoken there, and Priam had
twelve tributary kings under him. But however power-
ful the Trojans were, and however bravely they defended
themselves under the leadership of the son of Priam's
daughter, that valiant hero Thor, still they were defeated.
Troy was captured and burned by the Greeks, and Priam
himself was slain. Of the surviving Trojans two parties
emigrated in different directions. They seem in advance
to have been well informed in regard to the quality of
foreign lands ; for Thor, the son of Priam's daughter, had
made extensive expeditions in which he had fought giants
and monsters. On his journeys he had even visited the
North, and there he had met Sibil,, the celebrated proph-
etess, and married her. One of the parties of Trojan
emigrants embarked under the leadership of ^Eneas for
Italy, and founded Rome. The other party, accom-
panied by Thor's son, Loride, went to Asialand, which
is separated from Tyrkland by a mountain ridge, and from
Europe by the river Tanais or Tanakvisl, There they
founded a new city called Asgard, and there preserved
the old customs and usages brought from Troy. Accord-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ingly, there was organised in Asgard, as in Troy, a coun-
cil of twelve men, who were high priests and judges.
Many centuries passed without any political contact be-
tween the new Trojan settlements in Rome and Asgard,
though both well remembered their Trojan origin, and the
Romans formed many of their institutions after the model
of the old fatherland. Meanwhile, Rome had grown to
be one of the mightiest empires in the world, and began
at length to send armies into Tyrkland. At that time
there ruled in Asgard an exceedingly wise, prophetic
king, Odin, who was skilled in the magic arts, and who
was descended in the twentieth generation from the above-
mentioned Thor. Odin had waged many successful wars.
The severest of these wars was the one with a neighbour-
ing people, the Vans ; but this had been ended with com-
promise and peace. In Tyrkland, the old mother coun-
try, Odin had great possessions, which fell into the hands
of the Romans. This circumstance strengthened him in
his resolution to emigrate to the north of Europe. The
prophetic vision with which he was endowed had told
him that his descendants would long flourish there. So
he set out with his many sons, and was accompanied by
the twelve priests and by many people, but not by all the
inhabitants of the Asia country and of Asgard. A part
of the people remained at home ; and among them Odin's
brothers Vile and Ve. The expedition proceeded through
Gardarike to Saxland; then across the Danish islands to
Svithiod and Norway. Everywhere this great multitude
of migrators was well received by the inhabitants. Odin's
superior wisdom and his marvellous skill in sorcery,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

together with the fact that his progress was everywhere
attended by abundant harvests, caused the peoples to look
upon him as a god, and to place their thrones at his
disposal. He accordingly appointed his sons as kings in
Saxland, Denmark, Svithiod, and Norway. Gylfe, the
king of Svithiod, submitted to his superiority and gave
him a splendid country around Lake Mselar to rule over.
There Odin built Sigtuna, the institutions of which were
an imitation of those in Asgard and Troy. Poetry and
many other arts came with Odin to the Teutonic lands,
and so, too, the Trojan tongue. Like his ancestors,
Saturnus and Jupiter, he was able to secure divine wor-
ship, which was extended even to his twelve priests. The
religious traditions which he scattered among the people,
and which were believed until the introduction of Chris-
tianity, were misrepresentations spun around the memo-
ries of Troy's historical fate and its destruction, and
around the events of Asgard.

SAXO'S RELATION OF THE STORY OF TROY.

Such is, in the main, the story which was current in
Iceland in the thirteenth century, and which found its
way to Scandinavia through the Prose Edda and Heim-
skringla, concerning the immigration of Odin and the
Asas. Somewhat older than these works is Historia
Danica, by the Danish chronicler Saxo. Sturlason, the
author of Heimskringla, was a lad of eight years when
Saxo began to write his history, and he (Sturlason) had

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

certainly not begun to write history when Saxo had com-
pleted the first nine books of his work, which are based
on the still-existing songs and traditions found in Den-
mark, and of heathen origin. Saxo writes as if he were
unacquainted with Icelandic theories concerning an Asiatic
immigration to the North, and he has not a word to say
about Odin's reigning as king or chief anywhere in Scan-
dinavia. This is the more remarkable, since he holds the
same view as the Icelanders and the chroniclers of the
Middle Ages in general in regard to the belief that the
heathen myths were records of historical events, and that
the heathen gods were historical persons, men changed
into divinities; and our astonishment increases when we
consider that he, in the heathen songs and traditions on
which he based the first part of his work, frequently finds
Odin's name, and consequently could not avoid presenting
him in Danish history as an important character. In
Saxo, as in the Icelandic works, Odin is a human being,
and at the same time a sorcerer of the greatest power.
Saxo and the Icelanders also agree that Odin came from
the East. The only difference is that while the Icelandic
hypothesis makes him rule in Asgard, Saxo locates his
residence in Byzantium, on the Bosphorus; but this is
not far from the ancient Troy, where the Prose Edda
locates his ancestors. From Byzantium., according to
Saxo, the fame of his magic arts and of the miracles he
performed reached even to the north of Europe. On
account of these miracles he was worshipped as a god by
the peoples, and to pay him honour the kings of the
North once sent to Byzantium a golden image, to which

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Odin by magic arts imparted the power of speech. It
is the myth about Mimer's head which Saxo here relates.
But the kings of the North knew him not only by report ;
they were also personally acquainted with him. He
visited Upsala, a place which "pleased him much." Saxo,
like the Heimskringla, relates that Odin was absent from
his capital for a long time; and when we examine his
statements on this point, we find that Saxo is here telling
in his way the myth concerning the war which the Vans
carried on successfully against the Asas, and concerning
Odin's expulsion from the mythic Asgard, situated in
heaven (Hist. Dan., pp. 42-44; vid. No. 36). Saxo also
tells that Odin's son, Balder, was chosen king by the
Danes "on account of his personal merits and his respect-
commanding qualities." But Odin himself has never,
according to Saxo, had land or authority in the North,
though he was there worshipped as a god, and, as already
stated, Saxo is entirely silent in regard to any immigra-
tion of an Asiatic people to Scandinavia under the leader-
ship of Odin.

A comparison between him and the Icelanders will
show at once that, although both parties are Euhemerists,
and make Odin a man changed into a god, Saxo confines
himself more faithfully to the popular myths, and seeks
as far as possible to turn them into history; while the
Icelanders, on the other hand, begin with the learned
theory in regard to the original kinship of the northern
races with the Trojans and Romans, and around this
theory as a nucleus they weave about the same myths told
as history as Saxo tells.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

10.
THE OLDER PERIODS OE THE TROY SAGA.

How did the belief that Troy was the original home of
the Teutons arise? Does it rest on native traditions?
Has it been inspired by sagas and traditions current
among the Teutons themselves, and containing as kernel
"a faint reminiscence of an immigration from Asia," or
is it a thought entirely foreign to the heathen Teutonic
world, introduced in Christian times by Latin scholars?
These questions shall now be considered.

Already in the seventh century — that is to say, more
than five hundred years before Heimskringla and the
Prose Edda were written — a Teutonic people were told
by a chronicler that they were of the same blood as the
Romans, that they had like the Romans emigrated from
Troy, and that they had the same share as the Romans in
the glorious deeds of the Trojan heroes. This people
were the Franks. Their oldest chronicler, Gregorius,
bishop of Tours, who, about one hundred years before
that time — that is to say, in the sixth century — wrote
their history in ten books, does not say a word about it.
He, too, desires to give an account of the original home of
the Franks(Hirf. Franc., ii. 9), and locates it quite a dis-
tance from the regions around the lower Rhine, where
they first appear in the light of history; but still not
farther away than to Pannonia. Of the coming of the
Franks from Troy neither Gregorius knows anything nor
the older authors, Sulpicius Alexander and others, whose
works he studied to find information in regard to the early

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

history of the Franks. But in the middle of the following
century, about 650, an unknown author, who for reasons
unknown, is called Fredegar, wrote a chronicle, which is
in part a reproduction of Gregorius' historical work, but
also contains various other things in regard to the early
history of the Franks, and among these the statement
that they emigrated from Troy. He even gives us the
sources from which he got this information. His sources
are, according to his own statement, not Frankish, not
popular songs or traditions, but two Latin authors — the
Church father Hieronymus and the poet Virgil. If we,
then, go to these sources in order to compare Fredegar's
statement with his authority, we find that Hieronymus
once names the Franks in passing, but never refers to
their origin from Troy, and that Virgil does not even
mention Franks. Nevertheless, the reference to Virgil
is the key to the riddle, as we shall show below. What
Fredegar tells about the emigration of the Franks is this :
A Frankish king, by the name Priam, ruled in Troy at the
time when this city was conquered by the cunning of
Ulysses. Then the Franks emigrated, and were after-
wards ruled by a king named Friga. Under his reign a
dispute arose between them, and they divided themselves
into two parties, one of which settled in Macedonia, while
the other, called after Friga's name Frigians (Phrygians),
migrated through Asia and settled there. There they were
again divided, and one part of them migrated under king
Francio into Europe, travelled across this continent, and
settled, with their women and children, near the Rhine,
where they began building a city which they called Troy,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and intended to organise in the manner of the old Troy,
but the city was not completed. The other group chose
a king by name Turchot, and were called after him Turks.
But those who settled on the Rhine called themselves
Franks after their king Francio, and later chose a king
named Theudemer, who was descended from Priam,
Friga, and Francio. Thus Fredegar's chronicle.

About seventy years later another Frankish chronicle
saw the light of day — the Gesta regum Francorum* In
it we learn more of the emigration of the Franks from
Troy. Gesta regum Franc orum (i) tells the following
story: In Asia lies the city of the Trojans called Ilium,
where king ^£neas formerly ruled. The Trojans were
a strong and brave people, who waged war against all
their neighbours. But then the kings of the Greeks
united and brought a large army against ^Eneas, king
of the Trojans. There were great battles and much
bloodshed, and the greater part of the Trojans fell,
^neas fled with those surviving into the city of Ilium,
which the Greeks besieged and conquered after ten years.
The Trojans who escaped divided themselves into two
parties. The one under king- ^Eneas went to Italy, where
he hoped to receive auxiliary troops. Other distinguished
Trojans became the leaders of the other party, which
numbered 12,000 men. They embarked in ships and came
to the banks of the river Tanais. They sailed farther and
came within the borders of Pannonia, near the Mceotian
marshes (navigantes pervenerunt intra termmos Pan-
noniarum juxta Mceotidas paludes), where they founded a
city, which they called Sicambria, and here they remained

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

many years and became a mighty people. Then came a
time when the Roman emperor Valentinianus got into
war with that wicked people called Alamanni (also Alani).
He led a great army against them. The Alamanni were
defeated, and fled to the Mceotian marshes. Then said
the emperor, "If anyone dares to enter those marshes and
drive away this wicked people, I shall for ten years make
him free from all burdens." When the Trojans heard
this they went, accompanied by a Roman army, into the
marshes, attacked the Alamanni, and hewed them down
with their swords. Then the Trojans received from the
emperor Valentinianus the name Franks, which, the
chronicle adds, in the Attic tongue means the savage
(feri}, "for the Trojans had a defiant and indomitable
character."

For ten years afterwards the Trojans or Franks lived
undisturbed by Roman tax-collectors; but after that the
Roman emperor demanded that they should pay tribute.
This they refused, and slew the tax-collectors sent to
them. Then the emperor collected a large army under
the command of Aristarcus, and strengthened it with
auxiliary forces from many lands, and attacked the
Franks, who were defeated by the superior force, lost
their leader Priam, and had to take flight. They now
proceeded under their leaders Markomir, Priam's son, and
Sunno, son of Antenor, away from Sicambria through
Germany to the Rhine, and located there. Thus this
chronicle.

About fifty years after its appearance — that is, in the
time of Charlemagne, and, to be more accurate, about the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

year 787 — the well-known Longobardian historian Paulus
Diaconus wrote a history of the bishops of Metz. Among
these bishops was the Frank Arnulf, from whom Charle-
magne was descended in the fifth generation. Arnulf
had two sons, one of whom was named Ansgisel, in a
contracted form Ansgis. When Paulus speaks of this he
remarks that it is thought that the name Ansgis comes
from the father of ^Eneas, Anchises, who went from Troy
to Italy ; and he adds that according to evidence of older
date the Franks were believed to be descendants of the
Trojans. These evidences of older date we have con-
sidered above — Fredegar's Chronicle and Gesta regum
Francorum. Meanwhile this shows that the belief that
the Franks were of Trojan descent kept spreading with
the lapse of time. It hardly needs to be added that there
is no good foundation for the derivation of Ansgisel or
Ansgis from Anchises. Ansgisel is a genuine Teutonic
name. (See No. 123 concerning Ansgisel, the emigra-
tion chief of the Teutonic myth.)

We now pass to the second half of the tenth century,
and there we find the Saxon chronicler Widukind. When
he is to tell the story of the origin of the Saxon people,
he presents two conflicting accounts. The one is from a
Saxon source, from old native traditions, which we shall
discuss later; the other is from a scholastic source, and
claims that the Saxons are of Macedonian descent.
According to this latter account they were a remnant of
the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great, which, as
Widukind had learned, after Alexander's early death,
had spread over the whole earth. The Macedonians were

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

at that time regarded as Hellenicised Trojans. In this
connection I call the reader's attention to Fredegar's Chron-
icle referred to above, which tells that the Trojans, in the
time of king Friga, disagreed among themselves, and that
a part of them emigrated and settled in Macedonia. In
this manner the Saxons, like the Franks, could claim a
Trojan descent; and as England to a great extent was
peopled by Saxon conquerors, the same honour was of
course claimed by her people. In evidence of this, and
to show that it was believed in England during the cen-
turies immediately following Widukind's time, that the
Saxons and Angles were of Trojan blood, I will simply
refer here to a pseudo-Sibylline manuscript found in
Oxford and written in very poor Latin. It was examined
by the French scholar Alexandre (Excursus ad Sibyllina,
p. 298), and in it Britain is said to be an island inhabited
by the survivors of the Trojans (insulam reliquiis Tro-
janorum inhabitatam} . In another British pseudo-Sibyl-
line document it is stated that the Sibylla was a daughter
of king Priam of Troy; and an effort has been made to
add weight and dignity to this document by incorporating
it with the works of the well known Church historian
Beda, and thus date it at the beginning of the eighth cen-
tury, but the manuscript itself is a compilation from the
time of Frederick Barbarossa (Excurs. ad Sib., p. 289).
Other pseudo-Sibylline documents in Latin give accounts
of a Sibylla who lived and prophesied in Troy. I make
special mention of this fact, for the reason that in the
Foreword of the Prose Edda it is similarly stated that
Thor, the son of Priam's daughter, was married to Sibil
(Sibylla). 5S

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Thus when Franks and Saxons had been made into
Trojans — the former into full-blooded Trojans and the
latter into Hellenicised Trojans — it could not take long
before their northern kinsmen received the same descent
as a heritage. In the very nature of things the begin-
ning must be made by those Northmen who became the
conquerors and settlers of Normandy in the midst of
"Trojan" Franks. About a hundred years after their
settlement there they produced a chronicler, Dudo, deacon
of St. Quentin. I have already shown that the Macedo-
nians were regarded as Hellenicised Trojans. Together
with the Hellenicising they had obtained the name Danai,
a term applied to all Greeks. In his Norman Chronicle,
which goes down to the year 996, Dudo relates (De mori-
bus et gestis, &c., lib. i.) that the Norman men regarded
themselves as Danai, for Danes (the Scandinavians in
general) and Dania was regarded as the same race name.
Together with the Normans the Scandinavians also, from
whom they were descended accordingly had to be made
into Trojans. And thus the matter was understood by
Dudo's readers ; and when Robert Wace wrote his rhymed
chronicle, Roman de Ron, about the northern conquerors
of Normandy, and wanted to give an account of their
origin, he could say? on the basis of a common tradition :

"When the walls of Troy in ashes were laid,
And the Greeks exceedingly glad were made,
Then fled from flames on the Trojan strand
The race that settled old Denmark's land;
And in honour of the old Trojan reigns,
The people called themselves the Danes."

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I have now traced the scholastic tradition about the
descent of the Teutonic races from Troy all the way from
the chronicle where we first find this tradition recorded,
down to the time when Are, Iceland's first historian, lived,
and when the Icelander, Saemund, is said to have studied
in Paris, the same century in which Sturlason, Heimskrin-
gla's author, developed into manhood. Saxo rejected the
theory current among the scholars of his time, that the
northern races were Danai-Trojans. He knew that Dudo
in St. Quentin was the authority upon which this belief
was chiefly based, and he gives his Danes an entirely
different origin, quanquam Dudo, rerum Aquitanicarum
scriptor, Danos a Danais ortos nuncupatosque recenseat.
The Icelanders on the other hand, accepted and continued
to develop the belief, resting on the authority of five
hundred years, concerning Troy as the starting-point for
the Teutonic race; and in Iceland the theory is worked
out and systematised as we have already seen, and is
made to fit in a frame of the history of the world. The
accounts given in Heimskringla and the Prose Edda in
regard to the emigration from Asgard form the natural
denouement of an era which had existed for centuries,
and in which the events of antiquity were able to group
themselves around a common centre. All peoples and
families of chiefs were located around the Mediterranean
Sea, and every event and every hero was connected in
some way or other with Troy.

In fact, a great part of the lands subject to the Roman
sceptre were in ancient literature in some way connected
with the Trojan war and its consequences: Macedonia

5 57

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and Epirus through the Trojan emigrant Helenus ; Illyria
and Venetia through the Trojan emigrant Antenor ; Rhe-
tia and Vindelicia through the Amazons, allies of the
Trojans, from whom the inhabitants of these provinces
were said to be descended (Servius ad Virg., i. 248) ;
Etruria through Dardanus, who was said to have emi-
grated from there to Troy ; Latium and Campania through
the ^neids; Sicily, the very home of the ^nean tradi-
tions, through the relation between the royal families of
Troy and Sicily; Sardinia (see Sallust) ; Gaul (see Luca-
nus and Ammianus Marcellinus) ; Carthage through the
visit of yEneas to Dido ; and of course all of Asia Minor.
This was not all. According to the lost Argive History
by Anaxikrates, Scamandrius, son of Hektor and And-
romache, came with emigrants to Scythia and settled on
the banks of the Tanais; and scarcely had Germany
become known to the Romans, before it, too, became
drawn into the cycle of Trojan stories, at least so far as to
make this country visited by Ulysses on his many journeys
and adventures (Tac., Germ.}. Every educated Greek
and Roman person's fancy was filled from his earliest
school-days with Troy, and traces of Dardanians and
Danaians were found everywhere, just as the English
in our time think they have found traces of the ten lost
tribes of Israel both in the old and in the new world.

In the same degree as Christianity, Church learning,
and Latin manuscripts were spread among the Teutonic
tribes, there were disseminated among them knowledge
of and an interest in the great Trojan stories. The
native stories telling of Teutonic gods and heroes received

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

terrible shocks from Christianity, but were rescued in
another form on the lips of the people, and continued in
their new guise to command their attention and devotion.
In the class of Latin scholars which developed among the
Christianised Teutons, the new stories learned from Latin
literature, telling of Ilium, of the conflicts between Tro-
jans and Greeks, of migrations, of the founding of
colonies on foreign shores and the creating of new
empires, were the things which especially stimulated their
curiosity and captivated their fancy. The Latin literature
which was to a greater or less extent accessible to the
Teutonic priests, or to priests labouring among the Teu-
tons, furnished abundant materials in regard to Troy
both in classical and pseudo-classical authors. We need
only call attention to Virgil and his commentator Servius,
which became a mine of learning for the whole middle
age, and among pseudo-classical works to Dares Phry-
gius' Historic, de Hxcidio Trojce (which was believed to
have been written by a Trojan and translated by Cornelius
Nepos!), to Dictys Cretensis' Ephemeris belli Trojani
(the original of which was said to have been Phoenician,
and found in Dictys' alleged grave after an earthquake in
the time of Nero!), and to "Pindari Thebani," Epitome
Iliados Homeri.

Before the story of the Trojan descent of the Franks
had been created, the Teuton Jordanes, active as a writer
in the middle of the sixth century, had already found a
place for his Gothic fellow-countrymen in the events of
the great Trojan epic. Not that he made the Goths the
descendants either of the Greeks or Trojans. On the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

contrary, he maintained the Goths' own traditions in
regard to their descent and their original home, a matter
which I shall discuss later. But according to Orosius,
who is Jordanes' authority, the Goths were the same as
the Getce, and when the identity of these was accepted, it
was easy for Jordanes to connect the history of the Goths
with the Homeric stories. A Gothic chief marries
Priam's sister and fights with Achilles and Ulysses ( Jord.,
c. 9), and Ilium, having scarcely recovered from the war
with Agamemnon, is destroyed a second time by Goths
(c. 20).

11.

THE ORIGIN OF THE STORY IN REGARD TO THE TROJAN
DESCENT OF THE FRANKS.

We must now return to the Prankish chronicles, to
Fredegar's and Gesta regum Francorum, where the theory
of the descent from Troy of a Teutonic tribe is presented
for the first time, and thus renews the agitation handed
down from antiquity, which attempted to make all ancient
history a system of events radiating from Troy as their
centre. I believe I am able to point out the sources of all
the statements made in these chronicles in reference to
this subject, and also to find the very kernel out of which
the illusion regarding the Trojan birth of the Franks
grew.

As above stated, Fredegar admits that Virgil is the
earliest authority for the claim that the Franks are
descended from Troy. Fredegar's predecessor, Gregor-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ius of Tours, was ignorant of it? and, as already shown,
the word Franks does not occur anywhere in Virgil. The
discovery that he nevertheless gave information about
the Franks and their origin must therefore have been made
or known in the time intervening between Gregorius'
chronicle and Fredegar's. Which, then, can be the pas-
sage in Virgil's poems in which the discoverer succeeded
in finding the proof that the Franks were Trojans? A
careful examination of all the circumstances connected
with the subject leads to the conclusion that the passage
is in 2Bneis, lib. i., 242ff. :

"Antenor potuit, mediis elapsus Achivis,
Illyricos penetrare sinus atque intima tutus
Regna Liburnorum, et fontem superare Timavi:
Unde per ora novem vasto cum murmere mentis
It mare proruptum, et pelago premit arva sonanti.
Hie tamen ille urbem Patavi sedesque locavit
Teucrorum."

"Antenor having escaped from amidst the Greeks, could
with safety penetrate the Illyrian Gulf and the inmost
realms of Liburnia, and overpass the springs of Timavus,
whence, through nine months, with loud echoing from the
mountain, it bursts away, a sea impetuous, and sweeps the
fields with a roaring deluge. Yet there he built the city
of Padua and established a Trojan settlement."

The nearest proof at hand, that this is really the passage
which was interpreted as referring to the ancient history
of the Franks, is based on the following circumstances :

Gregorius of Tours had found in the history of Sulpi-
cius Alexander accounts of violent conflicts, on the west

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

bank of the Rhine, between the Romans and Franks, the
latter led by the chiefs Markomir and Sunno (Greg.,
Hist., ii. 9).

From Gregorius, Gesta regum Francorum has taken
both these names. According to Gesta, the Franks, under
the command of Markomir and Sunno, emigrate from
Pannonia, near the Moeotian marshes, and settle on the
Rhine. The supposition that they had lived in Pannonia
before their coming to the Rhine, the author of Gesta had
learned from Gregorius. In Gesta, Markomir is made a
son of the Trojan Priam, and Sunno a son of the Trojan
Antenor.

From this point of view, Virgil's account of Antenor's
and his Trojans' journey to Europe from fallen Troy
refers to the emigration of the father of the Frankish
chief Sunno at the head of a tribe of Franks. And as
Gesta's predecessor, the so-called Fredegar, appeals to
Virgil as his authority for this Frankish emigration, and
as the wanderings of Antenor are nowhere else mentioned
by the Roman poet, there can be no doubt that the lines
above quoted were the very ones which were regarded as
the Virgilian evidence in regard to a Frankish emigration
from Troy.

But how did it come to be regarded as an evidence ?

Virgil says that Antenor, when he had escaped the
Achivians, succeeded in penetrating Illyricos sinus, the
very heart of Illyria. The name Illyricum served to
designate all the regions inhabited by kindred tribes
extending from the Alps to the mouth of the Danube and
from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea and Haemus (cp.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Marquardt Rom. Staatsverwalt, 295). To Illyncum
belonged the Roman provinces Dalmatia, Pannonia, and
Mcesia, and the Pannonians were an Illyrian tribe. In
Pannonia Gregorius of Tours had located the Franks in
early times. Thus Antenor, with his Trojans, on their
westward journey, traverses the same regions from
which, according to Gregorius, the Franks had set out
for the Rhine.

Virgil also says that Antenor extended his journeys to
the Liburnian kingdoms (regna Liburnorum}, From
Servius' commentary on this passage, the middle age
knew that the Liburnian kingdoms were Rhetia and Vin-
delicia (Rhetia Vindelici ipsi sunt Liburni). Rhetia and
Vindelicia separate Pannonia from the Rhine. Antenor,
accordingly, takes the same route toward the West as the
Franks must have taken if they came from Pannonia to
the Rhine.

Virgil then brings Antenor to a river, which, it is true,
is called Timavus, but which is described as a mighty
stream, coming thundering out of a mountainous region,
where it has its source, carrying with it a mass of water
which the poet compares with a sea, forming before it
reaches the sea a delta, the plains of which are deluged
by the billows, and finally emptying itself by many outlets
into the ocean. Virgil says nine; but Servius interprets
this as meaning many : "finitus est numerus pro infinito."

We must pardon the Frankish scribes for taking this
river to be the Rhine ; for if a water-course is to be looked
for in Europe west of the land of the Liburnians, which
answers to the Virgilian description, then this must be

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the Rhine, on whose banks the ancestors of the Pranks for
the first time appear in history.

Again, Virgil tells us that Anterior settled near this
river and founded a colony — Patavium — on the low plains
of the delta. The Salian Franks acquired possession of
the low and flat regions around the outlets of the Rhine
(Insula Batavorum) about the year 287, and also of the
land to the south as far as to the Scheldt; and after pro-
tracted wars the Romans had to leave them in control
of this region. By the very occupation of this low coun-
try, its conquerors might properly be called Batavian
Franks. It is only necessary to call attention to the
similarity of the words Patavi and Batavi, in order to
show at the same time that the conclusion could scarcely
be avoided that Virgil had reference to the immigration
of the Franks when he spoke of the wanderings of
Antenor, the more so, since from time out of date the
pronunciation of the initials B and P have been inter-
changed by the Germans. In the conquered territory the
Franks founded a city (Ammian. Marc., xvii. 2, 5).

Thus it appears that the Franks were supposed to have
migrated to the Rhine under the leadership of Antenor.
The first Frankish chiefs recorded, after their appearance
there, are Markomir and Sunno. From this the conclusion
was drawn that Sunno was Antenor's son ; and as Marko-
mir ought to be the son of some celebrated Trojan chief,
he was made the son of Priam. Thus we have explained
Fredegar's statement that Virgil is his authority for the
Trojan descent of these Franks. This seemed to be
established for all time.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The wars fought around the Moeotian marshes between
the emperor Valentinianus, the Alamanni, and the Franks,
of which Gesta speaks, are not wholly inventions of the
fancy. The historical kernel in this confused semi-mythi-
cal narrative is that Valentinianus really did fight with
the Alamanni, and that the Franks for some time were
allies of the Romans, and came into conflict with those
same Alamanni (Ammian. Marc., libs, xxx., xxxi.).
But the scene of these battles was not the Moeotian
marshes and Pannonia, as Gesta supposes, but the regions
on the Rhine.

The unhistorical statement of Gregorius that the Franks
came from Pannonia is based only on the fact that
Prankish warriors for some time formed a Sicambra
cohors, which about the year 26 was incorporated with
the Roman troops stationed in Pannonia and Thracia.
The cohort is believed to have remained in Hungary and
formed a colony, where Buda now is situated. Gesta
makes Pannonia extend from the Moeotian marshes to
Tanais, since according to Gregorius and earlier chroni-
clers, these waters were the boundary between Europe
and Asia, and since Asia was regarded as a synonym of
the Trojan empire. Virgil had called the Trojan king-
dom Asia : Postq.uam res Asice Priomique evertere gen-
tern, &c., (dineid, iii. 1).

Thus we have exhibited the seed out of which the fable
about the Trojan descent of the Franks grew into a tree
spreading its branches over all Teutonic Europe, in the
same manner as the earlier fable, which was at least
developed if not born in Sicily, in regard to the Trojan

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

descent of the Romans had grown into a tree overshad-
owing all the lands around the Mediterranean, and extend-
ing one of its branches across Gaul to Britain and Ireland.
The first son of the Britons, "Brutus," was, acording to
Galfred, great-grandson of yEneas, and migrated from
Alba Longa to Ireland.

So far as the Gauls are concerned, the incorporation of
Cis-Alpine Gaul with the Roman Empire, and the Roman-
ising of the Gauls dwelling there, had at an early day
made way for the belief that they had the same origin
and were of the same blood as the Romans. Conse-
quently they too were Trojans. This view, encouraged
by Roman politics, gradually found its way to the Gauls
on the other side of the Rhine; and even before Caesar's
time the Roman senate had in its letters to the ^Eduans,
often called them the "brothers and kinsmen" of the
Romans (fratres consanguineique — Caesar, De Bell. Gall.,
i. 33, 2). Of the Avernians Lucanus sings (i. 427) :
Averni . . . ausi Latio se fingere fratres, sanguine ab
Iliaco populi.

Thus we see that when the Franks, having made them-
selves masters of the Romanised Gaul, claimed a Trojan
descent, then this was the repetition of a history of which
Gaul for many centuries previously had been the scene.
After the Prankish conquest the population of Gaul con-
sisted for the second time of two nationalities unlike in
language and customs, and now as before it was a political
measure of no slight importance to bring these two
nationalities as closely together as possible by the belief
in a common descent. The Roman Gauls and the Franks

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

were represented as having been one people in the time
of the Trojan war. After the fall of the common father-
land they were divided into two separate tribes, with
separate destinies, until they refound each other in the
west of Europe, to dwell together again in Gaul. This
explains how it came to pass that, when they thought they
had found evidence of this view in Virgil, this was at
once accepted, and was so eagerly adopted that the older
traditions in regard to the origin and migrations of the
Franks were thrust aside and consigned to oblivion. His-
tory repeats itself a third time when the Normans con-
quered and became masters of that part of Gaul which
after them is called Normandy. Dudo, their chronicler,
says that they regarded themselves as being ex Antenore
progenitos, descendants of Antenor. This is sufficient
proof that they had borrowed from the Franks the tradi-
tion in regard to their Trojan descent.

12.

WHY ODIN WAS GIVEN ANTENOR'S PLACE AS LEADER OF
THE TROJAN EMIGRATION.

So long as the Franks were the only ones of the Teutons
who claimed Trojan descent, it was sufficient that the
Teutonic-Trojan immigration had the father of a Frank-
ish chief as its leader. But in the same degree as the
belief in a Trojan descent spread among the other Teu-
tonic tribes and assumed the character of a statement
equally important to all the Teutonic tribes, the idea
would naturally present itself that the leader of the great

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

immigration was a person of general Teutonic import-
ance. There was no lack of names to choose from.
Most conspicuous was the mythical Teutonic patriarch,
whom Tacitus speaks of and calls Mannus ( Germania, 2 ) ,
the grandson of the goddess Jord (Earth). There can
be no doubt that he still was remembered by this (Mann)
or some other name (for nearly all Teutonic mythic
persons have several names), since he reappears in the
beginning of the fourteenth century in Heinrich Frauenlob
as Mennor, the patriarch of the German people and Ger-
man tongue.* But Mannus had to yield to another
universal Teutonic mythic character, Odin, and for
reasons which we shall now present.

As Christianity was gradually introduced among the
Teutonic peoples, the question confronted them, what
manner of beings those gods had been in whom they and
their ancestors so long had believed. Their Christian
teachers had two answers, and both were easily reconcil-
able. The common answer, and that usually given to
the converted masses, was that the gods of their ancestors
were demons, evil spirits, who ensnared men in supersti-
tion in order to become worshipped as divine beings.
The other answer, which was better calculated to please
the noble-born Teutonic families, who thought themselves
descended from the gods, was that these divinities were
originally human persons — kings, chiefs, legislators, who,
endowed with higher wisdom and secret knowledge, made

*"Mennor der erste was genant,

Dem diutische rede got tet bekant."

Later on in this work we shall discuss the traditions of the Mannussaga
found in Scandinavia and Germany.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

use of these to make people believe that they were gods,
and worship them as such. Both answers could, as
stated, easily be reconciled with each other, for it was
evident that when these proud and deceitful rulers died,
their unhappy spirits joined the ranks of evil demons,
and as demons they continued to deceive the people, in
order to maintain through all ages a worship hostile to the
true religion. Both sides of this view we find current
among the Teutonic races through the whole middle age.
The one which particularly presents the old gods as evil
demons is found in popular traditions from this epoch.
The other, which presents the old gods as mortals, as
chiefs and lawmakers with magic power, is more com-
monly reflected in the Teutonic chronicles, and was
regarded among the scholars as the scientific view.

Thus it followed of necessity that Odin, the chief of the
Teutonic gods, and from whom their royal houses were
fond of tracing their descent, also must have been a wise
king of antiquity and skilled in the magic arts, and infor-
mation was of course sought with the greatest interest in
regard to the place where he had reigned, and in regard
to his origin. There were two sources of investigation
in reference to this matter. One source was the treasure
of mythic songs and traditions of their own race. But
what might be history in these seemed to the students so
involved in superstition and fancy, that not much infor-
mation seemed obtainable from them. But there was
also another source, which in regard to historical trust-
worthiness seemed incomparably better, and that was the
Latin literature to be found in the libraries of the convents.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

During centuries when the Teutons had employed no
other art than poetry for preserving the memory of the
life and deeds of their ancestors, the Romans, as we know,
had had parchment and papyrus to write on, and had
kept systematic annals extending centuries back. Conse-
quently this source must be more reliable. But what had
this source — what had the Roman annals or the Roman
literature in general to tell about Odin? Absolutely
nothing, it would seem, inasmuch as the name Odin, or
Wodan, does not occur in any of the authors of the
ancient literature. But this was only an apparent obsta-
cle. The ancient king of our race, Odin, they said, has
had many names — one name among one people, and
another among another, and there can be no doubt that
he is the same person as the Romans called Mercury and
the Greeks Hermes.

The evidence of the correctness of identifying Odin
with Mercury and Hermes the scholars might have found
in Tacitus' work on Germany, where it is stated in the
ninth chapter that the chief god of the Germans is the
same as Mercury among the Romans. But Tacitus was
almost unknown in the convents and schools of this period
of the middle age. They could not use this proof, but
they had another and completely compensating evidence
of the assertion.

Originally the Romans did not divide time into weeks
of seven days. Instead, they had weeks of eight days,
and the farmer worked the seven days and went on the
eighth to the market. But the week of seven days had
been in existence for a very long time among certain

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Semitic peoples, and already in the time of the Roman
republic many Jews lived in Rome and in Italy. Through
them the week of seven days became generally known.
The Jewish custom of observing the sacredness of the
Sabbath, the first day of the week, by abstaining from all
labour, could not fail to be noticed by the strangers among
whom they dwelt. The Jews had, however, no special
name for each day of the week. But the Oriental, Egyp-
tian, and Greek astrologers and astronomers, who in large
numbers sought their fortunes in Rome, did more than
the Jews to introduce the week of seven days among all
classes of the metropolis, and the astrologers had special
names for each of the seven days of the week. Saturday
was the planet's and the planet-god Saturnus' day; Sunday,
the sun's; Monday, the moon's; Tuesday, Mars'; Wednes-
day, Mercury's ; Thursday, Jupiter's ; Friday, Venus' day.
Already in the beginning of the empire these names of
the days were quite common in Italy. The astrological
almanacs, which were circulated in the name of the Egyp-
tian Petosiris among all families who had the means to
buy them contributed much to bring this about. From
Italy both the taste for astrology and the adoption of the
week of seven days, with the above-mentioned names,
spread not only into Spain and Gaul, but also into those
parts of Germany that were incorporated with the Roman
Empire, Germania superior and inferior, where the
Romanising of the people, with Cologne (Civitas Ubio-
rum) as the centre, made great progress. Teutons who
had served as officers and soldiers in the Roman armies,
and were familiar with the everyday customs of the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Romans, were to be found in various parts of the inde-
pendent Teutonic territory, and it is therefore not strange
if the week of seven days, with a separate name given to
each day, was known and in use more or less extensively
throughout Teutondom even before Christianity had taken
root east of the Rhine, and long before Rome itself was
converted to Christianity. But from this introduction of
the seven-day week did not follow the adoption of the
Roman names of the days. The Teutons translated the
names into their own language, and in so doing chose
among their own divinities those which most nearly corre-
sponded to the Roman. The translation of the names is
made with a discrimination which seems to show that it
was made in the Teutonic border country, governed by the
Romans, by people who were as familiar with the Roman
gods as with their own. In that border land there must
have been persons of Teutonic birth who officiated as
priests before Roman altars. The days of the sun and
moon were permitted to retain their names. They were
called Sunday and Monday. The day of the war-god Mars
became the day of the war-god Tyr, Tuesday. The day
of Mercury became Odin's day, Wednesday. The day
of the lightning-armed Jupiter became the day of the
thundering Thor, Thursday. The day of the goddess
of love Venus became that of the goddess of love Freyja,
Friday. Saturnus, who in astrology is a watery star,
and has his house in the sign of the waterman, was among
the Romans, and before them among the Greeks and
Chaldseans, the lord of the seventh day. Among the
North Teutons, or at least, among a part of them, his

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

day got its name from laug* which means a bath, and
it is worthy of notice in this connection that the author of
the Prose Edda's Foreword identifies Saturnus with the
sea-god Njord.

Here the Latin scholars had what seemed to them a
complete proof that the Odin of which their stories of
the past had so much to tell was — and was so recognised
by their heathen ancestors — the same historical person as
the Romans worshipped by the name Mercury.

At first sight it may seem strange that Mercury and
Odin were regarded as identical. We are wont to con-
ceive Hermes (Mercury) as the Greek sculptors repre-
sented him, the ideal of beauty and elastic youth, while
we imagine Odin as having a contemplative, mysterious
look. And while Odin in the Teutonic mythology is the
father and ruler of the gods, Mercury in the Roman has,
of course, as the son of Zeus, a high rank, but his dignity
does not exempt him from being the very busy messenger
of the gods of Olympus. But neither Greeks nor Romans
nor Teutons attached much importance to such circum-
stances in the specimens we have of their comparative
mythology. The Romans knew that the same god among
the same people might be represented differently, and
that the local traditions also sometimes differed in re-
gard to the kinship and rank of a divinity. They there-
fore paid more attention to what Tacitus calls vis numi-
nis — that is, the significance of the divinity as a symbol
of nature, or its relation to the affairs of the community
and to human culture. Mercury was the symbol of wis-

* Saturday is in the North called Loverdag, Lordag — that is, Laugar-
dag = bathday. — TR.

6 73

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dom and intelligence; so was Odin. Mercury was the
god of eloquence; Odin likewise. Mercury had intro-
duced poetry and song among men ; Odin also. Mercury
had taught men the art of writing ; Odin had given them
the runes. Mercury did not hesitate to apply cunning
when it was needed to secure him possession of something
that he desired ; nor was Odin particularly scrupulous in
regard to the means. Mercury, with wings on his hat
and on his heels, flew over the world, and often appeared
as a traveller among men; Odin, the ruler of the wind,
did the same. Mercury was the god of martial games,
and still he was not really the war-god; Odin also was
the chief of martial games and combats, but the war-
god's occupation he had left to Tyr. In all important
respects Mercury and Odin, therefore, resembled each
other.

To the scholars this must have been an additional
proof that this, in their eyes, historical chief, whom the
Romans called Mercury and the Teutons Odin, had been
one and the same human person, who had lived in a dis-
tant past, and had alike induced Greeks, Romans, and
Goths to worship him as a god. To get additional and
more reliable information in regard to this Odin-Mercury
than what the Teutonic heathen traditions could impart,
it was only necessary to study and interpret correctly
what Roman history had to say about Mercury.

As is known, some mysterious documents called the
Sibylline books were preserved in Jupiter's temple, on
the Capitoline Hill, in Rome. The Roman State was
the possessor, and kept the strictest watch over them,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

so that their contents remained a secret to all excepting
those whose position entitled them to read them. A
college of priests, men in high standing, were appointed
to guard them and to consult them when circumstances
demanded it. The common opinion that the Roman
State consulted them for information in regard to the
future is incorrect. They were consulted only to find
out by what ceremonies of penance and propitiation the
wrath of the higher powers might be averted at times
when Rome was in trouble, or when prodigies of one
kind or another had excited the people and caused fears
of impending misfortune. Then the Sibylline books were
produced by the properly-appointed persons, and in some
line or passage they found which divinity was angry
and ought to be propitiated. This done, they published
their interpretation of the passage, but did not make
known the words or phrases of the passage, for the text
of the Sibylline books must not be known to the public.
The books were written in the Greek tongue.

The story telling how these books came into the pos-
session of the Roman State through a woman who sold
them to Tarquin — according to one version Tarquin the
Elder, according to another Tarquin the Younger — is
found in Roman authors who were well known and read
throughout the whole middle age. The woman was a
Sibylla, according to Varro the Erythreian, so called from
a Greek city in Asia Minor; according to Virgil the
Cumaean, a prophetess from Cumse in southern Italy.
Both versions could easily be harmonised, for Cumse was
a Greek colony from Asia Minor; and we read in Ser-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

vius' commentaries on Virgil's poems that the Erythreian
Sibylla was by many regarded as identical with the
Cumsean. From Asia Minor she was supposed to have
come to Cumse.

In western Europe the people of the middle age claimed
that there were twelve Sibyllas : the Persian, the Libyan,
the Delphian, the Cimmerinean, the Erythreian, the
Samian, the Cumaean, the Hellespontian or Trojan, the
Phrygian and Tiburtinian, and also the Sibylla Europa
and the Sibylla Agrippa. Authorities for the first ten of
these were the Church father Lactantius and the West
Gothic historian Isodorus of Sevilla. The last two, Eu-
ropa and Agrippa, were simply added in order to make
the number of Sibyllas equal to that of the prophets and
the apostles.

But the scholars of the middle ages also knew from
Servius that the Cumaean Sibylla was, in fact, the same
as the Erythreian; and from the Church father Lactan-
tius, who was extensively read in the middle ages, they
also learned that the Erythreian was identical with the
Trojan. Thanks to Lactantius, they also thought they
could determine precisely where the Trojan Sibylla was
born. Her birthplace was the town Marpessus, near the
Trojan Mount Ida. From the same Church father they
learned that the real contents of the Sibylline books had
consisted of narrations concerning Trojan events, of lives
of the Trojan kings, &c., and also of prophecies concern-
ing the fall of Troy and other coming events, and that
the poet Homer in his works was a mere plagiator, who
had found a copy of the books of the Sibylla, had recast

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and falsified it, and published it in his own name in the
form of heroic poems concerning Troy.

This seemed to establish the fact that those books,
which the woman from Cumae had sold to the Roman
king Tarquin, were written by a Sibylla who was born
in the Trojan country, and that the books which Trojan
bought of her contained accounts and prophecies — ac-
counts especially in regard to the Trojan chiefs and
heroes afterwards glorified in Homer's poems. As the
Romans came from Troy, these chiefs and heroes were
their ancestors, and in this capacity they were entitled
to the worship which the Romans considered due to the
souls of their forefathers. From a Christian standpoint
this was of course idolatry; and as the Sibyllas were be-
lieved to have made predictions even in regard to Christ,
it might seem improper for them to promote in this man-
ner the cause of idolatry. But Lactantius gave a satis-
factory explanation of this matter. The Sibylla, he said,
had certainly prophesied truthfully in regard to Christ;
but this she did by divine compulsion and in moments
of divine inspiration. By birth and in her sympathies
she was a heathen, and when under the spell of her genu-
ine inspirations, she proclaimed heathen and idolatrous
doctrines.

In our critical century all this may seem like mere
fancies. But careful examinations have shown that an
historical kernel is not wanting in these representations.
And the historical fact which lies back of all this is that
the Sibylline books which were preserved in Rome ac-
tually were written in Asia Minor in the ancient Trojan

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

territory; or, in other words, that the oldest known col-
lection of so-called Sibylline oracles was made in Mar-
pessus, near the Trojan mountain Ida, in the time of
Solon. From Marpessus the collection came to the neigh-
bouring city Gergis, and was preserved in the Apollo
temple there; from Gergis it came to Cumae, and from
Cumse to Rome in the time of the kings. How it came
there is not known. The story about the Cumsean
woman and Tarquin is an invention, and occurs in vari-
ous forms. It is also demonstrably an invention that
the Sibylline books in Rome contained accounts of the
heroes in the Trojan war. On the other hand, it is ab-
solutely certain that they referred to gods and to a wor-
ship which in the main were unknown to the Romans
before the Sibylline books were introduced there, and
that to these books must chiefly be attributed the remark-
able change which took place in Roman mythology dur-
ing the republican centuries. The Roman mythology,
which from the beginning had but few gods of clear iden-
tity with the Greek, was especially during this epoch
enlarged, and received gods and goddesses who were
worshipped in Greece and in the Greek and Hellenised
part of Asia Minor where the Sibylline books originated.
The way this happened was that whenever the Romans
in trouble or distress consulted the Sibylline books they
received the answer that this or that Greek-Asiatic god
or goddess was angry and must be propitiated. In con-
nection with the propitiation ceremonies the god or god-
dess was received in the Roman pantheon, and sooner
or later a temple was built to him; and thus it did not

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

take long before the Romans appropriated the myths that
were current in Greece concerning these borrowed divin-
ities. This explains why the Roman mythology, which
in its oldest sources is so original and so unlike the Greek,
in the golden period of Roman literature comes to us in
an almost wholly Greek attire; this explains why Roman
and Greek mythology at that time might be regarded as
almost identical. Nevertheless the Romans were able
even in the later period of antiquity to discriminate be-
tween their native gods and those introduced by the Sibyl-
line books. The former were worshipped according to
a Roman ritual, the latter according to a Greek. To the
latter belonged Apollo, Artemis, Latona, Ceres, Hermes,
Mercury, Proserpina, Cybile, Venus, and Esculapius;
and that the Sibylline books were a Greek-Trojan work,
whose original home was Asia Minor and the Trojan
territory, was well known to the Romans. When the
temple of the Capitoline Jupiter was burned down eighty-
four years before Christ, the Sibylline books were lost.
But the State could not spare them. A new collection
had to be made, and this was mainly done by gathering
the oracles which could be found one by one in those
places which the Trojan or Erythreian Sibylla had vis-
ited, that is to say, in Asia Minor, especially in Erythrae,
and in Ilium, the ancient Troy.

So far as Hermes-Mercury is concerned, the Roman
annals inform us that he got his first lectisternium in the
year 399 before Christ by order from the Sibylline books.
Lectisternium was a sacrifice: the image of the god was
laid on a bed with a pillow under the left arm, and beside

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the image was placed a table and a meal, which as a sacri-
fice was offered to the god. About one hundreds years
before that time, Hermes-Mercury had received his first
temple in Rome.

Hermes-Mercury seemed, therefore, like Apollo,
Venus, Esculapius, and others, to have been a god orig-
inally unknown to the Romans, the worship of whom
the Trojan Sibylla had recommended to the Romans.

This was known to the scholars of the middle age.
Now, we must bear in mind that it was as certain to them
as an undoubted scientific fact that the gods were orig-
inally men, chiefs, and heroes, and that the deified chief
whom the Romans worshipped as Mercury, and the
Greeks as Hermes, was the same as the Teutons called
Odin, and from whom distinguished Teutonic families
traced their descent. We must also remember that the
Sibylla who was supposed to have recommended the
Romans to worship the old king Odin-Mercurius was be-
lieved to have been a Trojan woman, and that her books
were thought to have contained stories about Troy's
heroes, in addition to various prophecies, and so this man-
ner of reasoning led to the conclusion that the gods who
were introduced in Rome through the Sibylline books
were celebrated Trojans who had lived and fought at a
time preceding the fall of Troy. Another inevitable and
logical conclusion was that Odin had been a Trojan chief,
and when he appears in Teutonic mythology as the chief
of gods, it seemed most probable that he was identical
with the Trojan king Priam, and that Priam was iden-
tical with Hermes-Mercury.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Now, as the ancestors of the Romans were supposed
to have emigrated from Troy to Italy under the leader-
ship of ^neas, it was necessary to assume that the
Romans were not the only Trojan emigrants, for, since
the Teutons worshipped Odin-Priamus-Hermes as their
chief god, and since a number of Teutonic families traced
their descent from this Odin, the Teutons, too, must have
emigrated from Troy. But, inasmuch as the Teutonic
dialects differed greatly from the Roman language, the
Trojan Romans and the Trojan Teutons must have been
separated a very long time.

They must have parted company immediately after
the fall of Troy and gone in different directions, and as
the Romans had taken a southern course on their way to
Europe, the Teutons must have taken a northern. It
was also apparent to the scholars that the Romans had
landed in Europe many centuries earlier than the Teu-
tons, for Rome had been founded already in 754 or 753
before Christ, but of the Teutons not a word is to be found
in the annals before the period immediately preceding
the birth of Christ. Consequently, the Teutons must
have made a halt somewhere on their journey to the
North. This halt must have been of several centuries'
duration, and, of course, like the Romans, they must
have founded a city, and from it ruled a territory in com-
memoration of their fallen city Troy. In that age very
little was known of Asia, where this Teutonic-Trojan
colony was supposed to have been situated, but, both from
Orosius and, later, from Gregorius of Tours, it was
known that our world is divided into three large divis-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ions — Asia, Europe, and Africa — and that Asia and Eu-
rope are divided by a river called Tanais. And having
learned from Gregorius of Tours that the Teutonic
Franks were said to have lived in Pannonia in ancient
times, and having likewise learned that the Mceotian
marshes lie east of Pannonia, and that the Tanais empties
into these marshes, they had the course marked out by
which the Teutons had come to Europe — that is, by way
of Tanais and the Mceotian marshes. Not knowing any-
thing at all of importance in regard to Asia beyond
Tanais, it was natural that they should locate the colony
of the Teutonic Trojans on the banks of this river.

I think I have now pointed out the chief threads of the
web of that scholastic romance woven out of Latin con-
vent learning concerning a Teutonic emigration from
Troy and Asia, a web which extends from Fredegar's
Frankish chronicle, through the following chronicles of
the middle age, down into Heimskringla and the Fore-
word of the Younger Edda. According to the Frankish
chronicle, Gesta regum Francorum, the emigration of the
Franks from the Trojan colony near the Tanais was
thought to have occurred very late; that is, in the time
of Valentinianus I., or in other words, between 364 and
375 after Christ. The Icelandic authors very well knew
that Teutonic tribes had been far into Europe long be-
fore that time, and the reigns they had constructed in re-
gard to the North indicated that they must have emi-
grated from the Tanais colony long before the Franks.
As the Roman attack was the cause of the Frankish emi-
gration, it seemed probable that these world-conquerors

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

had also caused the earlier emigration from Tanais ; and
as Pompey's expedition to Asia was the most celebrated
of all the expeditions made by the Romans in the East —
Pompey even entered Jerusalem and visited its Temple —
it was found most convenient to let the Asas emigrate
in the time of Pompey, but they left a remnant of Teu-
tons near the Tanais, under the rule of Odin's younger
brothers Vile and Ve, in order that this colony might con-
tinue to exist until the emigration of the Franks took
place.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the Trojan migra-
tion saga, as born and developed in antiquity, does not
indicate by a single word that Europe was peopled later
than Asia, or that it received its population from Asia.
The immigration of the Trojans to Europe was looked
upon as a return to their original homes. Dardanus,
the founder of Troy, was regarded as the leader of an
emigration from Etruria to Asia (JEneid, iii. 165 ff.,
Serv. Comm.). As a rule the European peoples re-
garded themselves in antiquity as autochthones if they did
not look upon themselves as immigrants from regions
within Europe to the territories they inhabited in his-
toric times.

13.

THE MATERIALS OF THE ICELANDIC TROY SAGA.

We trust the facts presented above have convinced
the reader that the saga concerning the immigration of
Odin and the Asas to Europe is throughout a product of

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the convent learning of the middle ages. That it was born
and developed independently of the traditions of the Teu-
tonic heathendom shall be made still more apparent by the
additional proofs that are accessible in regard to this sub-
ject. It may, however, be of some interest to first dwell
on some of the details in the Heimskringla. and in the
Younger Edda and point out their source.

It should be borne in mind that, according to the
Younger Edda, it was Zoroaster who first thought of
building the Tower of Babel, and that in this undertak-
ing he was assisted by seventy-two master-masons. Zoro-
aster is, as is well known, another form for the Bactrian
or Iranian name Zarathustra, the name of the prophet
and religious reformer who is praised on every page of
Avesta's holy books, and who in a prehistoric age founded
the religion which far down in our own era has been
confessed by the Persians, and is still confessed by their
descendants in India, and is marked by a most serious and
moral view of the world. In the Persian and in the clas-
sical literatures this Zoroaster has naught to do with
Babel, still less with the Tower of Babel. But already
in the first century of Christianity, if not earlier, tradi-
tions became current which made Zoroaster the founder
of all sorcery, magic, and astrology (Plinius, Hist. Nat.,
xxx. 2) ; and as astrology particularly was supposed to
have had its centre and base in Babylon, it was natural
to assume that Babel had been the scene of Zoroaster's
activity. The Greek-Roman chronicler Ammianus Mar-
cellinus, who lived in the fourth century after Christ, still
knows that Zoroaster was a man from Bactria, not from

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Babylon, but he already has formed the opinion that
Zoroaster had gotten much of his wisdom from the writ-
ings of the Babylonians. In the Church fathers the saga
is developed in this direction, and from the Church fath-
ers it got into the Latin chronicles. The Christian his-
torian Orosius also knows that Zoroaster was from Bac-
tria, but he already connects Zoroaster with the history
of Nineveh and Babylon, and makes Minus make war
against him and conquer him. Orosius speaks of him
as the inventor of sorcery and the magic arts. Gregorius
of Tours told in his time that Zoroaster was identical
with Noah's grandson, with Chus, the son of Ham, that
this Chus went to the Persians, and that the Persians
called him Zoroaster, a name supposed to mean "the liv-
ing star." Gregorius also relates that this Zoroaster was
the first person who taught men the arts of sorcery and
led them astray into idolatry, and as he knew the art of
making stars and fire fall from heaven, men paid him
divine worship. At that time, Gregorius continues, men
desired to build a tower which should reach to heaven.
But God confused their tongues and brought their pro-
ject to naught. Nimrod, who was supposed to have
built Babel, was, according to Gregorius, a son of Zoro-
aster.

If we compare this with what the Foreword of the
Younger Edda tells, then we find that there, too, Zoro-
aster is a descendant of Noah's son Cham and the
founder of all idolatry, and that he himself was wor-
shipped as a god. It is evident that the author of the
Foreword gathered these statements from some source

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

related to Gregorius' history. Of the 72 master-masons
who were said to have helped Zoroaster in building the
tower, and from whom the 72 languages of the world
originated, Gregorius has nothing to say, but the saga
about these builders was current everywhere during the
middle ages. In the earlier Anglo-Saxon literature there
is a very naive little work, very characteristic of its age,
called "A Dialogue between Saturn and Solomon," in
which Saturnus tests Solomon's knowledge and puts to
him all sorts of biblical questions, which Solomon an-
swers partly from the Bible and partly from sagas con-
nected with the Bible. Among other things Saturnus
informs Solomon that Adam was created out of various
elements, weighing altogether eight pounds, and that
when created he was just 116 inches long. Solomon
tells that Shem, Noah's son, had thirty sons, Cham thirty,
and Japhet twelve — making 72 grandsons of Noah ; and
as there can be no doubt that it was the author's opinion
that all the languages of the world, thought to be 72,
originated at the Tower of Babel, and were spread into
the world by these 72 grandsons of Noah, we here find
the key to who those 72 master-masons were who, ac-
cording to the Edda, assisted Zoroaster in building the
tower. They were accordingly his brothers. Luther's
contemporary, Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, who, in his
work De occulta Philosophia, gathered numerous data in
regard to the superstition of all ages, has a chapter on
the power and sacred meaning of various numbers, and
says in speaking of the number 72 : "The number 72
corresponds to the 72 languages, the 72 elders in the syn-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

agogue, the 72 commentators of the Old Testament,
Christ's 72 disciples, God's 72 names, the 72 angels who
govern the 72 divisions of the Zodiac, each division of
which corresponds to one of the 72 languages." This
illustrates sufficiently how widespread was the tradition
in regard to the 72 master-masons during the centuries
of the middle ages. Even Nestor's Russian chronicle
knows the tradition. It continued to enjoy a certain
authority in the seventeenth century. An edition of Sul-
picius Severus' Opera Omnia, printed in 1647, still con-
siders it necessary to point out that a certain commenta-
tor had doubted whether the number 72 was entirely
exact. Among the doubters we find Rudbeck in his At-
lantica.

What the Edda tells about king Saturnus and his son,
king Jupiter, is found in a general way, partly in the
Church-father Lactantius, partly in Virgil's commenta-
tor Servius, who was known and read during the middle
age. As the Edda claims that Saturnus knew the art
of producing gold from the molten iron, and that no
other than gold coins existed in his time, this must be
considered an interpretation of the statement made in
Latin sources that Saturnus' was the golden age — aurea
secula, aurea regna. Among the Romans Saturnus was
the guardian of treasures, and the treasury of the Ro-
mans was in the temple of Saturnus in the Forum.

The genealogy found in the Edda, according to which
the Trojan king Priam, supposed to be the oldest and the
proper Odin, was descended in the sixth generation from
Jupiter, is taken from Latin chronicles. Herikon of the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Edda, grandson of Jupiter, is the Roman-Greek Erich-
tonius; the Edda's Lamedon is Laomedon. Then the
Edda has the difficult task of continuing the genealogy
through the dark centuries between the burning of Troy
and the younger Odin's immigration to Europe. Here
the Latin sources naturally fail it entirely, and it is obliged
to seek other aid. It first considers the native sources.
There it finds that Thor is also called Lorride, Indride,
and Vingthor, and that he had two sons, Mode and
Magne; but it also finds a genealogy made about the
twelfth century, in which these different names of Thor
are applied to different persons, so that Lorride is the
son of Thor, Indride the son of Lorride, Vingthor the
son of Indride, &c. This mode of making genealogies
was current in Iceland in the twelfth century, and be-
fore that time among the Christian Anglo-Saxons.
Thereupon the Edda continues its genealogy with the
names Bedvig, Atra, Itrman, Heremod, Skjaldun or
Skold, Bjaef, Jat, Gudolf, Fjarlaf or Fridleif, and finally
Odin, that is to say, the younger Odin, who had adopted
this name after his deified progenitor Hermes-Priam.
This whole genealogy is taken from a Saxon source, and
can be found in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle name for
name. From Odin the genealogy divides itself into two
branches, one from Odin's son, Veggdegg, and another
from Odin's son, Beldegg or Balder. The one branch
has the names Veggdegg, Vitrgils, Ritta, Heingest.
These names are found arranged into a genealogy by
the English Church historian Beda, by the English chron-
icler Nennius, and in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle. From

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

one of these three sources the Edda has taken them, and
the only difference is that the Edda must have made a
slip in one place and changed the name Vitta to Ritta.
The other branch, which begins with Balder or Beldegg,
embraces eight names, which are found in precisely the
same order in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle.

In regard to Balder, the Edda says that Odin appointed
him king in Westphalia. This statement is based on the
tradition that Balder was known among the heathen Ger-
mans and Scandinavians by the name Fal {Pair, see No.
92), with its variation Fol. In an age when it was be-
lieved that Sweden got its name from a king Sven,
Gotaland from a king Got, Danmark from a king Dan,
Angeln from a king Angul, the Franks from a duke
Francio, it might be expected that Falen (East- and
West-Phalia) had been named after a king Fal. That
this name was recognised as belonging to Balder not
only in Germany, but also in Scandinavia, I shall give
further proof of in No. 92.

As already stated, Thor was, according to the Edda,
married to Sibil, that is to say, the Sibylla, and the Edda
adds that this Sibil is called Sif in the North. In the
Teutonic mythology Thor's wife is the goddess Sif. It
has already been mentioned that it was believed in the
middle age that the Cumsean or Erythreian Sibylla orig-
inally came from Troy, and it is not, therefore, strange
that the author of the Younger Edda, who speaks of the
Trojan descent of Odin and his people, should marry
Thor to the most famous of Trojan women. Still, this
marriage is not invented by the author. The statement

? 89

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

has an older foundation, and taking all circumstances into
consideration, may be traced to Germany, where Sif, in
the days of heathendom, was as well known as Thor. To
the northern form Sif corresponds the Gothic form
Sibba, the Old English Sib, the Old Saxon Sibbia, and the
Old High German Sibba, and Sibil, Sibilla,. was thought
to be still another form of the same name. The belief,
based on the assumed fact that Thor's wife Sif was iden-
tical with the Sibylla, explains a phenomenon not hitherto
understood in the saga-world and church sculpture of
the middle age, and on this point I now have a few re-
marks to make.

In the Norse mythology several goddesses or discs
have, as we know, feather-guises, with which they fly
through space. Freyja has a falcon-guise; several discs
have swan-guises (Volundarkv. Helreid. Brynh., 6).
Among these swan-maids was Sif (see No. 123). Sif
could therefore present herself now in human form, and
again in the guise of the most beautiful swimming bird,
the swan.

A legend, the origin of which may be traced to Italy,
tells that when the queen of Saba visited king Solomon,
she was in one place to cross a brook. A tree or beam
was thrown across as a bridge. The wise queen stopped,
and would not let her foot touch the beam. She pre-
ferred to wade across the brook, and when she was asked
the reason for this, she answered that in a prophetic vision
she had seen that the time would come when this tree
would be made into a cross on which the Saviour of the
world was to suffer.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The legend came also to Germany, but here it appears
with the addition that the queen of Saba was rewarded
for this piety, and was freed while wading across the brook
from a bad blemish. One of her feet, so says the Ger-
man addition, was of human form, but the other like the
foot of a water-bird up to the moment when she took it
out of the brook. Church sculpture sometimes in the
middle age represented the queen of Saba as a woman
well formed, except that she had one foot like that of a
water-bird. How the Germans came to represent her
with this blemish, foreign to the Italian legend, has not
heretofore been explained, although the influence of the
Greek-Roman mythology on the legends of the Romance
peoples, and that of the Teutonic mythology on the Teu-
tonic legends, has been traced in numerous instances.

During the middle ages the queen of Saba was called
queen Seba, on account of the Latin translation of the
Bible, where she is styled Regina Seba, and Seba was
thought to be her name. The name suggested her iden-
tity, on the one hand, with Sibba, Sif, whose swan-
guise lived in the traditions; on the other hand, with
Sibilla, and the latter particularly, since queen Seba had
proved herself to be in possession of prophetic inspira-
tion, the chief characteristic of the Sibylla. Seba, Sibba,
and Sibilla were in the popular fancy blended into one.
This explains how queen Seba among the Germans, but
not among the Italians, got the blemish which reminds
us of the swan-guise of Thor's wife Sibba. And hav-
ing come to the conclusion that Thor was a Trojan, his
wife Sif also ought to be a Trojan woman. And as it

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.

was known that the Sibylla was Trojan, and that queen
Seba was a Sibylla, this blending was almost inevitable.
The Latin scholars found further evidence of the cor-
rectness of this identity in a statement drawn originally
from Greek sources to the effect that Jupiter had had a
Sibylla, by name Lamia, as mistress, and had begotten
a daughter with her by name Herophile, who was en-
dowed with her mother's gift of prophecy. As we know,
Mercury corresponds to Odin, and Jupiter to Thor, in
the names of the days of the week. It thus follows that
it was Thor who stood in this relation to the Sibylla.

The character of the anthropomorphosed Odin, who is
lawgiver and king, as represented in Heimskringla and
the Prose Edda, is only in part based on native northern
traditions concerning the heathen god Odin, the ruler
of heaven. This younger Odin, constructed by Chris-
tian authors, has received his chief features from docu-
ments found in the convent libraries. When the Prose
Edda tells that the chief who proceeded from Asgard to
Saxland and Scandinavia did not really bear the name
Odin, but had assumed this name after the elder and dei-
fied Odin-Priam of Troy, to make people believe that he
was a god, then this was no new idea. Virgil's com-
mentator, Servius, remarks that ancient kings very fre-
quently assumed names which by right belonged only to
the gods, and he blames Virgil for making Saturnus come
from the heavenly Olympus to found a golden age in
Italy. This Saturnus, says Servius, was not a god from
above, but a mortal king from Crete who had taken the
god Saturnus' name. The manner in which Saturnus,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

on his arrival in Italy and the vicinity of Rome, was re-
ceived by Janus, the king ruling there, reminds us of the
manner in which Odin, on his arrival in Svithiod, was
received by king Gylfe. Janus is unpretentious enough
to leave a portion of his territory and his royal power to
Saturnus, and Gylfe makes the same concessions to Odin.
Saturnus thereupon introduces a higher culture among
the people of Latium, and Odin brings a higher culture
to the inhabitants of Scandinavia. The Church father
Lactantius, like Servius, speaks of kings who tried to
appropriate the name and worship of the gods, and con-
demns them as foes of truth and violators of the doc-
trines of the true God.

In regard to one of them, the Persian Mithra, who, in
the middle age, was confounded with Zoroaster, Tertulia-
nus relates that he (Mithra), who knew in advance that
Christianity would come, resolved to anticipate the true
faith by introducing some of its customs. Thus, for ex-
ample, Mithra, according to Tertulianus, introduced the
custom of blessing by laying the hands on the head or
the brow of those to whom he wished to insure prosper-
ity, and he also adopted among his mysteries a practice
resembling the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist.
So far as the blessing by the laying on of hands is con-
cerned, Mithra especially used it in giving courage to
the men whom he sent out as soldiers to war. With
these words of Tertulianus it is interesting to compare
the following passage in regard to Odin in the Heim-
skringla: "It was his custom when he sent his men to
war, or on some errand, to lay his hands on their heads

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and give them bjannak." Bjannak is not a Norse word,
not even Teutonic, and there has been uncertainty in re-
gard to its significance. The well-known Icelandic philo-
logist, Vigfusson, has, as I believe, given the correct defi-
nition of the word, having referred it to the Scottish
word bannock and the Gaelic banagh, which means bread.
Presumably the author of Heimskringla has chosen this
foreign word in order not to wound the religious feel-
ings of readers with a native term, for if bjannak really
means bread, and if the author of Heimskringla desired in
this way to indicate that Odin, by the aid of sacred usages,
practised in the Christian cult — that is, by the laying on
of hands and the breaking of bread — had given his war-
riors assurance of victory, then it lay near at hand to
modify, by the aid of a foreign word for bread, the im-
pression of the disagreeable similarity between the
heathen and Christian usages. But at the same time the
complete harmony between what Tertulianus tells about
Mithra and Heimskringla about Odin is manifest.

What Heimskringla tells about Odin, that his spirit
could leave the body and go to far-off regions, and that
his body lay in the meantime as if asleep or dead, is told,
in the middle age, of Zoroaster and of Hermes-Mer-
curius.

New Platonian works had told much about an orig-
inally Egyptian god, whom they associated with the
Greek Hermes and called Hermes-Trismegistus — that is,
the thrice greatest and highest. The name Hermes-
Trismegistus became known through Latin authors even
to the scholars in the middle age convents, and, as a mat-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ter of course, those who believed that Odin was identical
with Hermes also regarded him as identical with Hermes-
Trismegistus. When Gylfe sought Odin and his men
he came to a citadel which, according to the statement of
the gatekeeper, belonged to king Odin, but when he had
entered the hall he there saw not one throne, but three
thrones, the one above the other, and upon each of the
thrones a chief. When Gylfe asked the names of these
chiefs, he received an answer that indicates that none of
the three alone was Odin, but that Odin the sorcerer, who
was able to turn men's vision, was present in them all.
One of the three, says the doorkeeper, is named Hdr, the
second, Jafnhdr, and the one on the highest throne is
Thridi. It seems to me probable that what gave rise to
this story was the surname "the thrice-highest," which
in the middle age was ascribed to Mercury, and, conse-
quently, was regarded as one of the epithets which Odin
assumed. The names Third and High seem to point to
the phrase "the thrice-highest." It was accordingly taken
for granted that Odin had appropriated this name in or-
der to anticipate Christianity with a sort of idea of trinity,
just as Zoroaster, his progenitor, had, under the name
Mithra, in advance imitated the Christian usages.

The rest that Heimskringla and the Younger Edda
tell about the king Odin who immigrated to Europe is
mainly taken from the stories embodied in the mytholo-
gical songs and traditions in regard to the gocl Odin who
ruled in the celestial Valhal. Here belongs what is told
about the war of Odin and the Asiatics with the Vans.
In the myth, this war was waged around the walls built

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

by a giant around the heavenly Asgard (Volusp., 25).
The citadel in which Gylfe finds the triple Odin is decor-
ated in harmony with the Valhal described by the heathen
skalds. The men who drink and present exercises in
arms are the einherjes of the myth. Gylfe himself is
taken from the mythology, but, to all appearances, he
did not play the part of a king, but of a giant, dwelling
in Jotunheim. The Fornmanna sagas make him a de-
scendant of Fornjotr, who, with his sons, Hler, Logi,
and Kan, and his descendants, Jokull, Sneer, Geitlr, &c.,
doubtless belong to Jotunheim. When Odin and the
Asas had been made immigrants to the North, it was quite
natural that the giants were made a historical people, and
as such were regarded as the aborigines of the North —
an hypothesis which, in connection with the fable about
the Asiatic emigration, was accepted for centuries, and
still has its defenders. The story that Odin, when he
perceived death drawing near, marked himself with the
point of a spear, has its origin in the words which a
heathen song lays on Odin's lips : "I know that I hung
on the wind-tossed tree nine nights, by my spear
wounded, given to Odin, myself given to myself"
(Havam., 138).

14.

THE RESULT OF THE FOREGOING INVESTIGATIONS.

Herewith I close the examination of the sagas in re-
gard to the Trojan descent of the Teutons, and in re-
gard to the immigration of Odin and his Asia-men to

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Saxland, Denmark, and the Scandinavian peninsula. I
have pointed out the seed from which the sagas grew,
the soil in which the seed could be developed, and how it
gradually grew to be what we find these sagas to be in
Heimskringla and the Younger Edda. I have shown
that they do not belong to the Teutonic heathendom, but
that they were born, as it were of necessity, in a Christian
time, among Teutons converted to Christianity, and that
they are throughout the work of the Latin scholars in the
middle age. The assumption that they concealed within
themselves a tradition preserved ^or centuries among
the Teutons themselves of an ancient emigration from
Asia is altogether improbable, and is completely refuted
by the genuine migration sagas of Teutonic origin which
were rescued from oblivion, and of which I shall give an
account below. In my opinion, these old and genuine
Teutonic migration sagas have, from a purely historical
standpoint, but little more claim than the fables of the
Christian age in regard to Odin's emigration from Asia
to be looked upon as containing a kernel of reality. This
must in each case be carefully considered. But that of
which they furnish evidence is, how entirely foreign to
the Teutonic heathens was the idea of an immigration
from Troy or Asia, and besides, they are of great interest
on account of their connection with what the myths have
to say in regard to the oldest dwelling-places, history,
and diffusion of the human race, or at least of the Teu-
tonic part of it.

As a rule, all the old migration sagas, no matter from
what race they spring, should be treated with the utmost

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

caution. Large portions of the earth's surface may have
been appropriated by various races, not by the sudden
influx of large masses, but by a gradual increase of the
population and consequent moving of their boundaries,
and there need not have been very remarkable or mem-
orable events in connection therewith. Such an expan-
sion of the territory may take place, and be so little re-
marked by the people living around the centre, that they
actually do not need to be aware of it, and much less do
they need to remember it in sagas and songs. That a
few new settlers year by year extend the boundaries of
a race 'has no influence on the imagination, and it can
continue generation after generation, and produce as its
final result an immense expansion, and yet the separate
generations may scarcely have been conscious of the
change in progress. A people's spreading over new ter-
ritory may be compared with the movement of the hour-
hand on a clock. It is not perceptible to the eye, and is
only realized by continued observation.

In many instances, however, immigrations have taken
place in large masses, who have left their old abodes to
seek new homes. Such undertakings are of themselves
worthy of being remembered, and they are attended by
results that easily cling to the memory. But even in such
cases it is surprising how soon the real historical events
either are utterly forgotten or blended with fables, which
gradually, since they appeal more to the fancy, monopo-
lise the interest. The conquest and settlement of Eng-
land by Saxon and Scandinavian tribes — and that, too,
in a time when the art of writing was known — is a most

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

remarkable instance of this. Hengist, under whose com-
mand the Saxons, according to their own immigration
saga, are said to have planted their feet on British soil,
is a saga-figure taken from mythology, and there we shall
find him later on (see No. 123). No wonder, then, if
we discover in mythology those heroes under whose lead-
ership the Longobardians and Goths believed they had
emigrated from their original Teutonic homes.

B. REMINISCENCES IN THE POPULAR TRADI-
TIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES OF THE
HEATHEN MIGRATION SAGA.

15.

THE LONGOBARDIAN MIGRATION SAGA.

What there still remains of migration sagas from the
middle ages, taken from the saga-treasure of the Teu-
tons themselves, is, alas! but little. Among the Franks
the stream of national traditions early dried up, at least
among the class possessing Latin culture. Among the
Longobardians it fared better, and among them Chris-
tianity was introduced later. Within the ken of Roman
history they appear in the first century after Christ, when
Tiberius invaded their boundaries.

Tacitus speaks of them with admiration as a small
people whose paucity, he says, was balanced by their
unity and warlike virtues, which rendered them secure in
the midst of the numerous and mighty tribes around them.
The Longobardians dwelt at that time in the most north-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ern part of Germany, on the lower Elbe, probably in
Luneburg. Five hundred years later we find them as
rulers in Pannonia, whence they invade Italy. They had
then been converted to Christianity. A hundred years
after they had become settled in North Italy, one of their
Latin scholars wrote a little treatise, De Origine Longo-
'bardorum, which begins in the following manner: "In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! Here begins the
oldest history of our Longobardian people. There is an
island called Skadan, far in the north. There dwelt
many peoples. Among them was a little people called
the Vinnilians, and among the Vinnilians was a woman
by name Gambara. Gambara had two sons: one by
name Ibor, the other named Ajo. She and these sons
were the rulers among the Vinnilians. Then it came to
pass that the Vandals, with their dukes Ambri and Assi,
turned against the Vinnilians, and said to them: Tay
ye tribute unto us. If ye will not, then arm yourselves
for war!' Then made answer Ibor and Ajo and their
mother Gambara: 'It is better for us to arm ourselves
for war than to pay tribute to the Vandals'. When
Ambri and Assi, the dukes of the Vandals, heard this,
they addressed themselves to Odin (Godan) with a
prayer that he should grant them victory. Odin an-
swered and said: 'Those whom I first discover at the
rising of the sun, to them I shall give victory'. But at
the same time Ibor and Ajo, the chiefs of the Vinnilians,
and their mother Gambara, addressed themselves to
Frigg (Frea), Odin's wife, beseeching her to assist them.
Then Frigg gave the advice that the Vinnilians should

100

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

set out at the rising of the sun, and that the women should
accompany their husbands and arrange their hair so that
it should hang like a beard under their chins. When
the sky cleared and the sun was about to rise, Frigg,
Odin's wife, went to the couch where her husband was
sleeping and directed his face to the east (where the Vin-
nilians stood), and then she waked him. And as he
looked up he saw the Vinnilians, and observed the hair
hanging down from the faces of their women. And then
said he : 'What long-beards are they ?' Then said Frigg
to Odin : 'My lord, as you now have named them, you
must also give them victory!' And he gave them vic-
tory, so that they, in accordance with his resolve, de-
fended themselves well, and got the upper hand. From
that day the Vinnilians were called Longobardians —
that is to say, long-beards. Then the Longobardians
left their country and came to Golaida, and thereupon
they occupied Aldonus, Anthaib, Bainaib, and Burgun-
daib."

In the days of Charlemagne the Longobardians got a
historian by name Paulus Diaconus, a monk in the con-
vent Monte Cassino, and he was himself a Longobardian
by birth. Of the earliest history of his people he re-
lates the following: The Vinnilians or Longobardians,
who ruled successfully in Italy, are of Teutonic descent,
and came originally from the island Scandinavia. Then
he says that he has talked with persons who had been in
Scandinavia, and from their reports he gives some facts,
from which it is evident that his informants had refer-
ence to Scania with its extensive coast of lowlands and

101

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

shallow water. Then he continues: "When the popu-
lation on this island had increased beyond the ability of
the island to support them, they were divided into three
parts, and it was determined by lot which part should
emigrate from the native land and seek new homes. The
part whose destiny it became to leave their native land
chose as their leaders the brothers Ibor and Ajo, who
were in the bloom of manhood and were distinguished
above the rest. Then they bade farewell to their friends
and to their country, and went to seek a land in which
they might settle. The mother of these two leaders was
called Gambara, who was distinguished among her people
for her keen understanding and shrewd advice, and great
reliance was placed on her prudence in difficult circum-
stances." Paulus makes a digression to discuss many
remarkable things to be seen in Scandinavia: the light
summer nights and the long winter nights, a maelstrom
which in its vortex swallows vessels and sometimes
throws them up again, an animal resembling a deer
hunted by the neighbours of the Scandinavians, the
Scritobinians (the Skee* Finns), and a cave in a rock
where seven men in Roman clothes have slept for cen-
turies (see Nos. 79-81, and No. 94). Then he relates
that the Vinnilians left Scandinavia and came to a coun-
try called Scoringia, and there was fought the aforesaid
battle, in which, thanks to Frigg's help, the Vinnilians
conquered the Vandals, who demanded tribute from them.

"The snow-skate, used so extensively in the north of Europe, is called
Sfci in the Norse, and I have taken the liberty of introducing this word
here and spelling it phonetically — skee, pi. sTcees. The words snow-shoes,
snow-skates, hardly describe sufficiently these skees used by the Finns,
Norsemen, and Icelanders. Compare the English word skid, the drag ap-
plied to a coach-wheel. — TE.

102

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The story is then told how this occurred, and how the
Vinnilians got the name Longobardians in a manner cor-
responding with the source already quoted, with the one
addition, that it was Odin's custom when he awoke to
look out of the window, which was open, to the east to-
ward the rising sun. Paulus Diaconus finds this Longo-
bardian folk-saga ludicrous, not in itself, but because
Odin was, in the first place, he says, a man, not a god.
In the second place, Odin did not live among the Teutons,
but among the Greeks, for he is the same as the one called
by the Romans Mercury. In the third place, Odin-
Mercury did not live at the time when the Longobardians
emigrated from Scandinavia, but much earlier. Accord-
ing to Paulus, there were only five generations between
the emigration of the Longobardians and the time of
Odoacer. Thus we find in Paulus Diaconus the ideas
in regard to Odin-Mercury which I have already called
attention to. Paulus thereupon relates the adventures
which happened to the Longobardians after the battle
with the Vandals. I shall refer to these adventures later
on. They belong to the Teutonic mythology, and reap-
pear in mythic sources (see No. 112), but in a more orig-
inal form, and as events which took place in the beginning
of time in a conflict between the Asas and Vans on the one
hand, and lower beings on the other hand ; lower, indeed,
but unavoidable in connection with the well-being of
nature and man. This conflict resulted in a terrible win-
ter and consequent famine throughout the North. In
this mythological description we shall find Ajo and Ibor,
under whose leadership the Longobardians emigrated,

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and Hengist, under whom the Saxons landed in Britain.

It is proper to show what form the story about the
Longobardian emigration had assumed toward the close
of the twelfth century in the writings of the Danish his-
torian Saxo Grammaticus. The emigration took place,
he says, at a time when a Danish king, by name Sno,
ruled, and when there occurred a terrible famine. First,
those starving had resolved to kill all the aged and all
children, but this awful resolve was not carried out,
thanks to a good and wise woman, by name Gambaruc,
who advised that a part of the people should emigrate.
This was done under the leadership of her sons Aggo and
Ebbo. The emigrants came first to Blekingia (Blek-
inge), then they sailed past Moringia (More) and came
to Gutland, where they had a contest with the Vandals,
and by the aid of the goddess Frigg they won the victory,
and got the name Longobardians. From Gutland they
sailed to Rugen, and thence to the German continent, and
thus after many adventures they at length became mas-
ters of a large part of Italy.

In regard to this account it must be remarked that
although it contains many details not found in Paulus
Diaconus, still it is the same narrative that has come to
Saxo's knowledge. This Saxo also admits, and appeals
to the testimony of Paulus Diaconus. Paulus' Gambara
is Saxo's Gambaruc ; Ajo and Ibor are Aggo and Ebtx>.
But the Longobardian monk is not Saxo's only source,
and the brothers Aggo and Ebbo, as we shall show, were
known to him from purely northern sources, though not
as leaders of the Longobardians, but as mythic charac-

104

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ters, who are actors in the great winter which Saxo
speaks of.

The Longobardian emigration saga — as we find it re-
corded in the seventh century, and then again in the time
of Charlemagne — contains unmistakable internal evi-
dence of having been taken from the people's own tradi-
tions. Proof of this is already the circumstance, that
although the Longobardians had been Christians for
nearly 200 years when the little book De Origine Longo-
bardorum appeared, still the long-banished divinities,
Odin and Frigg, reappear and take part in the events, not
as men, but as divine beings, and in a manner thoroughly
corresponding with the stories recorded in the North con-
cerning the relations between Odin and his wife. For
although this relation was a good and tender one, judg-
ing from expressions in the heathen poems of the North
(Volusp., 51; Vafthr., 1-4), and although the queen of
heaven, Frigg, seems to have been a good mother in the
belief of the Teutons, this does not hinder her from being
represented as a wily person, with a will of her own which
she knows how to carry out. Even a Norse story tells
how Frigg resolves to protect a person whom Odin is not
able to help; how she and he have different favourites
among men, and vie with each other in bringing greater
luck to their favourites. The story is found in the prose
introduction to the poem "Grimnismal," an introduction
which in more than one respect reminds us of the Longo-
bardian emigration saga. In both it is mentioned how
Odin from his dwelling looks out upon the world and ob-
serves what is going on. Odin has a favourite by name

8 105

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Geirrod. Frigg, on the other hand, protects Geirrod's
brother Agnar. The man and wife find fault with each
other's proteges. Frigg remarks about Geirrod, that he
is a prince, "stingy with food, so that he lets his guests
starve if they are many." And the story goes on to say
that Geirrod, at the secret command of Odin, had pushed
the boat in which Agnar was sitting away from shore,
and that the boat had gone to sea with Agnar and had not
returned. The story looks like a parable founded on the
Longobardian saga, or like one grown in a Christian time
out of the same root as the Longobardian story. Geirrod
is in reality the name of a giant, and the giant is in the
myth a being who brings hail and frost. He dwells in
the uttermost North, beyond the mythical Gandvik
(Thorsdrapa, 2), and as a mythical winter symbol he
corresponds to king Sno in Saxo. His "stinginess of
food when too many guests come" seems to point to lack
of food caused by the unfavourable weather, which neces-
sitated emigrations, when the country became over-popu-
lated. Agnar, abandoned to the waves of the sea, is
protected, like the Longobardians crossing the sea, by
Frigg, and his very name, Agnar, reminds us of the names
Aggo, Acho, and Agio, by which Ajo, one of the leaders
of the Longobardians, is known. The prose introduc-
tion has no original connection with Grimnismdl itself,
and in the form in which we now have it, it belongs to a
Christian age, and is apparently from an author belong-
ing to the same school as those who regarded the giants
as the original inhabitants of Scandinavia, and turned
winter giants like Jokull, Snaer, &c., into historical kings
of Norway. Io6

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The absolutely positive result of the Longobardian
narratives written by Longobardian historians is that
the Teutonic race to which they belonged considered
themselves sprung, not from Troy or Asia, but from an
island, situated in the ocean, which washes the northern
shores of the Teutonic continent, that is to say, of Ger-
many.

16.

THE SAXON AND SWABIAN MIGRATION SAGA.

From the Longobardians I now pass to the great Teu-
tonic group of peoples comprised in the term the Saxons.
Their historian, Widukind, who wrote his chronicle in
the tenth century, begins by telling what he has learned
about the origin of the Saxons. Here, he says, different
opinions are opposed to each other. According to one
opinion held by those who knew the Greeks and Romans,
the Saxons are descended from the remnants of Alexan-
der the Great's Macedonian army ; according to the other,
which is based on native traditions, the Saxons are de-
scended from Danes and Northmen. Widukind so far
takes his position between these opinions that he consid-
ers it certain that the Saxons had come in ships to the
country they inhabited on the lower Elbe and the North
Sea, and that they landed in Hadolaun, that is to say, in
the district Hadeln, near the mouth of the Elbe, which,
we may say in passing, still is distinguished for its re-
markably vigorous population, consisting of peasants
whose ancestors throughout the middle ages preserved

107

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the communal liberty in successful conflict with the feudal
nobility. Widukind's statement that the Saxons crossed
the sea to Hadeln is found in an older Saxon chronicle,
written about 860, with the addition that the leader of
the Saxons in their emigration was a chief by name
Hadugoto.

A Swabian chronicle, which claims that the Swabians
also came from the North and experienced about the same
adventures as the Saxons when they came to their new
home, gives from popular traditions additional details in
regard to the migration and the voyage. According to
this account, the emigration was caused by a famine which
visited the Northland situated on the other side of the
sea, because the inhabitants were heathens who annually
sacrificed twelve Christians to their gods. At the time
when the famine came there ruled a king Rudolph over
that region in the Northland whence the people emi-
grated. He called a convention of all the most noble
men in the land, and there it was decided that, in order
to put an end to the famine, the fathers of families who
had several sons should slay them all except the one they
loved most. Thanks to a young man, by name Ditwin,
who was himself included in this dreadful resolution, a
new convention was called, and the above resolution was
rescinded, and instead, it was decided to procure ships,
and that all they who, according to the former resolution,
were doomed to die, should seek new homes beyond the
sea. Accompanied by their female friends, they em-
barked, and they had not sailed far before they were at-
tacked by a violent storm, which carried them to a Danish

1 08

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

harbour near a place, says the author, which is called
Slesvik. Here they went ashore, and to put an end to all
discussion in regard to a return to the old dear father-
land, they hewed their ships into pieces. Then they wan-
dered through the country which lay before them, and,
together with much other booty, they gathered 20,000
horses, so that a large number of the men were able to
ride on horseback. The rest followed the riders on foot.
Armed with weapons, they proceeded in this manner
through the country ruled by the Danes, and they came
to the river Alba (Elbe), which they crossed; after which
they scattered themselves along the coast. This Swabian
narrative, which seems to be copied from the Saxon,
tells, like the latter, that the Thuringians were rulers in
the land to which the immigrants came, and that bloody
battles had to be fought before they got possession of it.
Widukind's account attempts to give the Saxons a legal
right, at least to the landing-place and the immediate
vicinity. This legal right, he says, was acquired in the
following manner : While the Saxons were still in their
ships in the harbour, out of which the Thuringians were
unable to drive them, it was resolved on both sides to
open negotiations, and thus an understanding was
reached, that the Saxons, on the condition that they ab-
stained from plundering and murder, might remain and
buy what they needed and sell whatever they could.
Then it occurred that a Saxon man, richly adorned with
gold and wearing a gold necklace, went ashore. There
a Thuringian met him and asked him : "Why do you
wear so much gold around your lean neck ?" The youth

109

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

answered that he was perishing from hunger, and was
seeking a purchaser of his gold ornaments. "How much
do you ask?" inquired the Thuringian. "What do you
bid?" answered the Saxon. Near by was a large sand-
hill, and the Thuringian said in derision: "I will give
you as much sand as you can carry in your clothes."
The Saxon said he would accept this offer. The Thur-
ingian filled the skirts of his frock with sand ; the Saxon
gave him his gold ornaments and returned to the ships.
The Thuringians laughed at this bargain with contempt,
and the Saxons found it foolish ; but the youth said : "Go
with me, brave Saxons, and I will show you that my
foolishness will be your advantage." Then he took the
sand he had bought and scattered it as widely as possible
over the ground, covering in this manner so large an
area that it gave the Saxons a fortified camp. The Thur-
ingians sent messengers and complained of this, but the
Saxons answered that hitherto they had faithfully ob-
served the treaty, and that they had not taken more ter-
ritory than they had purchased with their gold. Thus
the Saxons got a firm foothold in the land.

Thus we find that the sagas of the Saxons and the
Swabians agree with those of the Longobardians in this,
that their ancestors were supposed to have come from a
northern country beyond the Baltic. The Swabian ver-
sion identifies this country distinctly enough with the
Scandinavian peninsula. Of an immigration from the
East the traditions of these tribes have not a word to
say.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY
17.

THE PRANKISH MIGRATION SAGA.

We have already stated that the Prankish chronicles,
unlike those of the other Teutonic tribes, wholly ignore
the traditions of the Franks, and instead present the scho-
lastic doctrine concerning the descent of the Franks from
Troy and the Mceotian marshes. But I did not mean
to say that we are wholly without evidence that another
theory existed among the Franks, for they, too, had tra-
ditions in harmony with those of the other Teutonic tribes.
There lived in the time of Charlemagne and after him a
Frankish man whose name is written on the pages of his-
tory as a person of noble character and as a great educa-
tor in his day, the abbot in Fulda, later archbishop in
Mayence, Hrabanus Maurus, a scholar of the distin-
guished Alcuin, the founder of the first library and of
the first large convent school in Germany. The fact
that he was particularly a theologian and Latinist did not
prevent his honouring and loving the tongue of his fa-
thers and of his race. He encouraged its study and use,
and he succeeded in bringing about that sermons were
preached in the churches in the Teutonic dialect of the
church-goers. That a Latin scholar with so wide a hori-
zon as his also was able to comprehend what the majority
of his colleagues failed to understand — viz., that some
value should be attached to the customs of the fathers and
to the old memories from heathen times — should not sur-
prise us. One of the proofs of his interest in this mat-
ter he has given us in his treatise De invocatione lin-

iii

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

guarum, in which he has recorded a Runic alphabet, and
added the information that it is the alphabet used by the
Northmen and by other heathen tribes, and that songs
and formulas for healing, incantation, and prophecy are
written with these characters. When Hrabanus speaks
of the Northmen, he adds that those who speak the Ger-
man tongue trace their descent from the Northmen. This
statement cannot be harmonised with the hypothesis con-
cerning the Asiatic descent of the Franks and other Teu-
tons, except by assuming that the Teutons on their im-
migration from Asia to Europe took a route so far to
the north that they reached the Scandinavian peninsula
and Denmark without touching Germany and Central
Europe, and then came from the North to Germany.
But of such a view there is not a trace to be found in the
middle age chronicles. The Prankish chronicles make
the Franks proceed from Pannonia straight to the Rhine.
The Icelandic imitations of the hypothesis make Odin
and his people proceed from Tanais to Saxland, and found
kingdoms there before he comes to Denmark and Sweden.
Hrabanus has certainly not heard of any such theory.
His statement that all the Teutons came from the North
rests on the same foundation as the native traditions
which produced the sagas in regard to the descent of the
Longobardians, Saxons, and Swabians from the North.
There still remains one trace of the Frankish migration
saga, and that is the statement of Paulus Diaconus, made
above, concerning the supposed identity of the name
Ansgisel with the name Anchises. The identification is
not made by Paulus himself, but was found in the Frank-

112

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ish source which furnished him with what he tells about
the ancestors of Charlemagne, and the Prankish source,
under the influence of the hypothesis regarding the Tro-
jan descent of the Franks, has made an emigration leader
mentioned in the popular traditions identical with the
Trojan Anchises. This is corroborated by the Ravenna
geographer, who also informs us that a certain Anschis,
Ansgisel, was a Teutonic emigration leader, and that he
was the one under whose leadership the Saxon tribes left
their old homes. Thus it appears that, according to the
Prankish saga, the Franks originally emigrated under the
same chief as the Saxons. The character and position
of Ansgisel in the heathen myth will be explained in
No. 123.

18.

JORDANES ON THE EMIGRATION OF THE GOTHS, GEPID^E,
AND HERUUANS. THE MIGRATION SAGA OF THE
BURGUNDIANS. TRACES OF AN ALAMANNIC MIGRATION
SAGA.

The most populous and mighty of all the Teutonic
tribes was during a long period the Gothic, which car-
ried victorious weapons over all eastern and southern Eu-
rope and Asia Minor, and founded kingdoms between
the Don in the East and the Atlantic ocean and the Pil-
lars of Hercules in the West and South. The traditions
of the Goths also referred the cradle of the race to Scan-
dinavia. Jordanes, a Romanised Goth, wrote in the sixth
century the history of his people. In the North, he says,

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

there is a great ocean, and in this ocean there is a large
island called Scandza, out of whose loins our race burst
forth like a swarm of bees and spread over Europe. In
its capacity as cradle of the Gothic race, and of other
Teutonic tribes, this island Scandza is clearly of great
interest to Jordanes, the more so since he, through his
father Vamod or Alano-Vamut, regarded himself as de-
scended from the same royal family as that from which
the Amalians, the famous royal family of the East Goths,
traced their ancestry. On this account Jordanes gives as
complete a description of this island as possible. He first
tells what the Greek and Roman authors Claudius
Ptolemy and Pomponius Mela have written about it, but
he also reports a great many things which never before
were known in literature, unless they were found in the
lost Historia Gothorum by Cassiodorus — things which
either Jordanes himself or Cassiodorus had learned from
Northmen who were members of the large Teutonic
armies then in Italy. Jordanes also points out, with an
air of superiority, that while the geographer Ptolemy did
not know more than seven nations living on the island
Scandza, he is able to enumerate many more. Unfortu-
nately several of the Scandinavian tribe-names given by
him are so corrupted by the transcriber that it is useless
to try to restore them. It is also evident that Jordanes
himself has had a confused notion of the proper geo-
graphical or political application of the names. Some
of them, however, are easily recognisable as the names
of tribes in various parts of Sweden and Norway, as,
for instance, Vagoth, Ostrogothse, Finnaithse (inhabi-

114

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tants of Finved), Bergio, Hallin, Raumaricii, Ragnaricii,
Rani. He gives us special accounts of a Scandinavian
people, which he calls sometimes Svehans and sometimes
Svethidi, and with these words there is every reason to
believe that he means the Swedes in the wider or more
limited application of this term. This is what he tells
about the Svehans or Svethidi : The Svehans are in con-
nection with the Thuringians living on the continent, that
Teutonic people which is particularly celebrated for their
excellent horses. The Svehans are excellent hunters,
who kill the animals whose skins through countless hands
are sent to the Romans, and are treasured by them as the
finest of furs. This trade cannot have made the Svehans
rich. Jordanes gives us to understand that their econom-
ical circumstances were not brilliant, but all the more
brilliant were their clothes. He says they dressed ditis-
sime. Finally, he has been informed that the Svethidi
are superior to other races in stature and corporal
strength, and that the Danes are a branch of the Svethidi.
What Jordanes relates about the excellent horses of the
Swedes is corroborated by the traditions which the Ice-
landers have preserved. The fact that so many tribes
inhabited the island Scandza strengthens his conviction
that this island is the cradle of many of the peoples who
made war on and invaded the Roman Empire. The
island Scandza, he says, has been officina gentium, vagina
nationum — the source of races, the mother of nations.
And thence — he continues, relying on the traditions and
songs of his own people — the Goths, too, have emigrated.
This emigration occurred under the leadership of a chief

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY
I

named Berig, and he thinks he knows where they landed
when they left their ships, and that they, like the Longo-
bardians, on their progress came in conflict with the Van-
dals before they reached the regions north of the Black
Sea, where they afterwards founded the great Gothic
kingdom which flourished when the Huns invaded Eu-
rope.

The saga current among the Goths, that they had emi-
grated from Scandinavia, ascribed the same origin to the
Gepidae. The Gepidae were a brave but rather sluggish
Teutonic tribe, who shared the fate of the Goths when
the Huns invaded Europe, and, like the Goths, they cast
off the Hunnish yoke after the death of Attila. The
saga, as Jordanes found it, stated that when the ancestors
of the Goths left Scandza, the whole number of the emi-
grants did not fill more than three ships. Two of them
came to their destination at the same time; but the third
required more time, and therefore the first-comers called
those who arrived last Gepanta (possibly Gepaita),
which, according to Jordanes, means those tarrying, or
the slow ones, and this name changed in course of time
into Gepidae. That the interpretation is taken from
Gothic traditions is self-evident.

Jordanes has heard a report that even the warlike Teu-
tonic Herulians had come to Germany from Scandinavia.
According to the report, the Herulians had not emigrated
voluntarily from the large islands, but had been driven
away by the Svethidi, or by their descendants, the Danes.
That the Herulians themselves had a tradition concern-
ing their Scandinavian origin is corroborated by history.

116

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

In the beginning of the sixth century, it happened that
this people, after an unsuccessful war with the Longo-
bardians, were divided into two branches, of which the
one received land from the emperor Anastasius south of
the Danube, while the other made a resolve, which has ap-
peared strange to all historians, viz., to seek a home on
the Scandinavian peninsula. The circumstances attend-
ing this resolution make it still more strange. When
they had passed the Slavs, they came to uninhabited re-
gions— uninhabited, probably, because they had been
abandoned by the Teutons, and had not yet been occupied
by the Slavs. In either case, they were open to the oc-
cupation of the Herulians; but they did not settle there.
We misunderstand their character if we suppose that they
failed to do so from fear of being disturbed in their pos-
session of them. Among all the Teutonic tribes none
were more distinguished than the Herulians for their in-
domitable desire for war, and for their rash plans. Their
conduct furnishes evidence of that thoughtlessness with
which the historian has characterised them. After pene-
trating the wilderness, they came to the landmarks of
the Varinians, and then to those of the Danes. These
granted the Herulians a free passage, whereupon the ad-
venturers, in ships which the Danes must have placed at
their disposal, sailed over the sea to the island "Thule,"
and remained there. Procopius, the East Roman his-
torian who records this (De Bello Goth., ii., 15), says that
on the immense island Thule, in whose northern part the
midnight sun can be seen, thirteen large tribes occupy
its inhabitable parts, each tribe having its own king. Ex-

117

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

cepting the Skee Finns, who clothe themselves in skins
and live from the chase, these Thulitic tribes, he says, are
scarcely to be distinguished from the people dwelling far-
ther south in Europe. One of the largest tribes is the
Gauts (the Gotar). The Herulians went to the Gauts
and were received by them.

Some decades later it came to pass that the Herulians
remaining in South Europe, and dwelling in Illyria, were
in want of a king. They resolved to send messengers to
their kinsmen who had settled in Scandinavia, hoping
that some descendant of their old royal family might be
found there who was willing to assume the dignity of
king among them. The messengers returned with two
brothers who belonged to the ancient family of rulers,
and these were escorted by 200 young Scandinavian Heru-
lians.

As Jordanes tells us that the Herulians actually were
descended from the great northern island, then this seems
to me to explain this remarkable resolution. They were
seeking new homes in that land which in their old songs
was described as having belonged to their fathers. In
their opinion, it was a return to the country which con-
tained the ashes of their ancestors. According to an
old middle age source, Vita Sigismundi, the Burgundians
also had old traditions about a Scandinavian origin. As
will be shown further on, the Burgundian saga was con-
nected with the same emigration chief as that of the
Saxons and Franks (see No. 123).

Reminiscences of an Alamannic migration saga can be
traced in the traditions found around the Vierwaldstadter

118

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Lake. The inhabitants of the Canton Schwitz have be-
lieved that they originally came from Sweden. It is fair
to assume that this tradition in the form given to it in
literature has suffered a change, and that the chroniclers,
on account of the simliarity between Sweden and Schwitz,
have transferred the home of the Alamannic Switzians
to Sweden, while the original popular tradition has, like
the other Teutonic migration sagas, been satisfied with
the more vague idea that the Schwitzians came from the
country in the sea north of Germany when they settled
in their Alpine valleys. In the same regions of Switzer-
land popular traditions have preserved the memory of an
exploit which belongs to the Teutonic mythology, and is
there performed by the great archer Ibor (see No. 108),
and as he reappears in the Longobardian tradition as a
migration chief, the possibility lies near at hand, that he
originally was no stranger to the Alamannic migration
saga.

19.
THE TEUTONIC EMIGRATION SAGA FOUND IN TACITUS.

The migration sagas which I have now examined are
the only ones preserved to our time on Teutonic ground.
They have come down to us from the traditions of vari-
ous tribes. They embrace the East Goths, West Goths,
Longobardians, Gepidse, Burgundians, Herulians,
Franks, Saxons, Swabians, and Alamannians. And if
we add to these the evidence of Hrabanus Maurus, then
all the German tribes are embraced in the traditions. All

119

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the evidences are unanimous in pointing to the North
as the Teutonic cradle. To these testimonies we must,
finally, add the oldest of all — the testimony of the sources
of Tacitus from the time of the birth of Christ and the
first century of our era.

The statements made by Tacitus in his masterly work
concerning the various tribes of Germany and their re-
ligion, traditions, laws, customs, and character, are gath-
ered from men who, in Germany itself, had seen and heard
what they reported. Of this every page of the work
bears evidence, and it also proves its author to have been
a man of keen observation, veracity, and wide knowl-
edge. The knowledge of his reporters extends to the
myths and heroic songs of the Teutons. The latter is
the characteristic means with which a gifted people, still
leading their primitive life, makes compensation for their
lack of written history in regard to the events and ex-
ploits of the past. We find that the man he interviewed
had informed himself in regard to the contents of the
songs which described the first beginning and the most
ancient adventures of the race, and he had done this with
sufficient accuracy to discover a certain disagreement in
the genealogies found in these songs of the patriarchs and
tribe heroes of the Teutons — a disagreement which we
shall consider later on. But the man who had done this
had heard nothing which could bring him, and after him
Tacitus, to believe that the Teutons had immigrated from
some remote part of the world to that country which
they occupied immediately before the birth of Christ — to
that Germany which Tacitus describes, and in which he

1 20

THOR, THE THUNDER-GOD.

j| (From the paiati'ifi by na. E. Wtnye.)

HPHOR was reputed to be the son nf Odin, .= imamed the
•»• father, and Jorth, the earth. He was th
patron of culture and of heroes, friend of mankind and

rr of giants. He always cnrrit-i a heavy hamm^
The Crusher, with which he fi Light, insisted by tl
tning. From Thor is derived the middle English
rsday (Thorsday) and Thunder.

;e North

die. T< ve must,

oldest of all- e sources

i'rom the time of the id the

of our era.

ments made by Taci work

tribes of G< their re-

oms, an- are gath-

iany itself, had seen and heard

every page of the work

author to have been

and wide knowl-

- extends to the

latter is

Deople, still

T^ifT

riarchs and

tribe her 'he Teui we

•nan who had done this
ring him, and after
..it the Teutons had immigrated from
<>rld to that

-to

120

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

embraces that large island in the North Sea where the
seafaring and warlike Sviones dwelt. Quite the con-
trary. In his sources of information Tacitus found noth-
ing to hinder him from assuming as probable the view
he expresses — that the Teutons were aborigines, au-
tochthones, fostered on the soil which was their father-
land. He expresses his surprise at the typical similarity
prevailing among all the tribes of this populous people,
and at the dissimilarity existing between them on the one
hand, and the non-Teutonic peoples on the other ; and he
draws the conclusion that they are entirely unmixed with
other races, which, again, presupposes that the Teutons
from the most ancient times have possessed their country
for themselves, and that no foreign element has been able
to get a foothold there. He remarks that there could
scarcely have been any immigrations from that part of
Asia which was known to him, or from Africa or Italy,
since the nature of Germany was not suited to invite peo-
ple from richer and more beautiful regions. But while
Tacitus thus doubts that non-Teutonic races ever settled
in Germany, still he has heard that people who desired to
exchange their old homes for new ones have come there
to live. But these settlements did not, in his opinion,
result in a mixing of the race. Those early immigrants
did not come by land, but in fleets over the sea; and as
this sea was the boundless ocean which lies beyond the
Teutonic continent and was seldom visited by people liv-
ing in the countries embraced in the Roma'n empire, those
immigrants must themselves have been Teutons. The
wor«is of Tacitus are (Germ., 2) : Germanos indigenas

9 121

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

crediderim minimeque aliarum gentium adventibus et
hospitiis mixtos, quia nee terra olim sed classibus advehe-
bantur qui mutare sedes qucerebant, et immensus ultra
atque ut sic dixerim adversus Oceanus raris ab orbe nostro
navibus aditur. "I should think that the Teutons them-
selves are aborigines (and not at all mixed through immi-
grations or connection with non-Teutonic tribes. For those
desiring to change homes did not in early times come by
land, but in ships across the boundless and, so to speak,
hostile ocean — a sea seldom visited by ships from the
Roman world." This passage is to be compared with,
and is interpreted by, what Tacitus tells when he, for the
second time, speaks of this same ocean in chapter 44,
where he relates that in the very midst of this ocean lies
a land inhabited by Teutonic tribes, rich not only in men
and arms, but also in fleets (pr&ter viros armaque classi-
bus valent), and having a stronger and better organiza-
tion than the other Teutons. These people formed sev-
eral communities (civitates}. He calls them the Sviones,
and describes their ships. The conclusion to be drawn
from his words is, in short, that those immigrants were
Northmen belonging to the same race as the continental
Teutons. Thus traditions concerning immigrations from
the North to Germany have been current among the con-
tinental Teutons already in the first century after Christ.
But Tacitus' contribution to the Teutonic migration
saga is not limited to this. In regard to the origin of a
city then already ancient and situated on the Rhine,
Asciburgium (Germ., 3), his reporter had heard that it
was founded by an ancient hero who had come with his

122

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ships from the German Ocean, and had sailed up the
Rhine a great distance beyond the Delta, and had then
disembarked and laid the foundations of Asciburgium.
His reporter had also heard such stories about this ancient
Teutonic hero that persons acquainted with the Greek-
Roman traditions (the Romans or the Gallic neighbours
of Asciburgium) had formed the opinion that the hero in
question could be none else than the Greek Ulysses, who,
in his extensive wanderings, had drifted into the German
Ocean and thence sailed up the Rhine. In weighing this
account of Tacitus we must put aside the Roman-Gallic
conjecture concerning Ulysses' visit to the Rhine, and
confine our attention to the fact on which this conjecture
is based. The fact is that around Asciburgium a tradi-
tion was current concerning an ancient hero who was
said to have come across the northern ocean with a host
of immigrants and founded the above-named city on the
Rhine, and that the songs or traditions in regard to this
ancient hero were of such a character that they who knew
the adventures of Ulysses thought they had good reason
for regarding him as identical with the latter. Now, the
fact is that the Teutonic mythology has a hero who to
quote the words of an ancient Teutonic document, "was
the greatest of all travellers," and who on his journeys
met with adventures which in some respects remind us of
Ulysses'. Both descended to Hades; both travelled far
and wide to find their beloved. Of this mythic hero and
his adventures see Nos. 96-107, and No. 107 about Asci-
burgium in particular.

It lies outside the limits of the present work to inves-

123

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tigate whether these traditions contain any historical
facts. There is need of caution in this respect, since facts
of history are, as a rule, short-lived among a people that
do not keep written annals. The historical songs and
traditions of the past which the Scandinavians recorded
in the twelfth century do not go further back in time than
to the middle of the ninth century, and the oldest were
already mixed with stories of the imagination. The
Hellenic historical records from a pre-literary time were
no older ; nor were those of the Romans. The question
how far historically important emigrations from the
Scandinavian peninsula and Denmark to Germany have
taken place should in my opinion be considered entirely
independent of the old migration traditions if it is to be
based on a solid foundation. If it can be answered in the
affirmative, then those immigrations must have been par-
tial returns of an Aryan race which/ prior to all records,
have spread from the South to the Scandinavian coun-
tries. But the migration traditions themselves clearly
have their firmest root in myths, and not in historical
memories; and at all events are so closely united with
the myths, and have been so transformed by song and
fancy, that they have become useless for historical pur-
poses. The fact that the sagas preserved to our time
make nearly all the most important and most numerous
Teutonic tribes which played a part in the destiny of
Southern Europe during the Empire emigrants from
Scandinavia is calculated to awaken suspicion.

The wide diffusion this belief has had among the Teu-
tons is sufficiently explained .by their common mythology

124

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

— particularly by the myth concerning the earliest age of
man or of the Teutonic race. As this work of mine ad-
vances, I shall find opportunity of presenting the results
of my investigations in regard to this myth. The frag-
ments of it must, so to speak, be exhumed from various
mounds, and the proofs that these fragments belong to-
gether, and once formed a unit, can only be presented as
the investigation progresses. In the division "The
Myth concerning the Earliest Period and the Emigra-
tions from the North," I give the preparatory explana-
tion and the general resume (Nos. 20^-43). For the
points which cannot there be demonstrated without too
long digressions the proofs will be presented in the divis-
ion "The Myth concerning the Race of Ivalde" (Nos.
96-123),

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III.

THE MYTH CONCERNING THE EARLIEST

PERIOD AND THE EMIGRATIONS

FROM THE NORTH.

20.

THE CREATION OF MAN. THE PRIMEVAL COUNTRY.
SCEF THE BRINGER OF CULTURE.

The human race, or at least the Teutonic race, springs,
according to the myth, from a single pair, and has ac-
cordingly had a centre from which their descendants have
spread over that world which was embraced by the Teu-
tonic horizon. The story of the creation of this pair has
its root in a myth of ancient Aryan origin, according to
which the first parents were plants before they became
human beings. The Iranian version of the story is pre-
served in Bundehesh, chap. 15. There it is stated that
the first human pair grew at the time of the autumnal
equinox in the form of a rheum ribes with a single stalk.
After the lapse of fifteen years the bush had put forth
fifteen leaves. The man and woman who developed in
and with it were closely united, forming one body, so
that it could not be seen which one was the man and which
one was the woman, and they held their hands close to
their ears. Nbthing revealed whether the splendour of

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Ahuramazda — that is to say, the soul — was yet in them
or not. Then said Ahuramazda to Mashia (the man)
and to Mashiana (the woman): "Be human beings;
become the parents of the world!" And from being
plants they got the form of human beings, and Ahura-
mazda urged them to think good thoughts, speak good
words and do good deeds. Still, they soon thought an
evil thought and became sinners. The rheum ribes from
which they sprang had its own origin in seed from a
primeval being in human form, Gaya Maretan (Gayo-
mert), which was created from perspiration (cp.
Vafthrudnersmal, xxxiii. 1-4), but was slain by the evil
Angra Mainyu. Bundehesh then gives an account of
the first generations following Mashia and Mashiana,
and explains how they spread over the earth and became
the first parents of the human race.

The Hellenic Aryans have known the myth concern-
ing the origin of man from plants. According to Hesio-
dus, the men of the third age of the world grew from the
ash tree (ek meleon} ; compare the Odyssey, xix, 163.

From this same tree came the first man according to
the Teutonic myth. Three asas, mighty and worthy of
worship, came to Midgard (at husi, Volusp., 16 ; compare
Volusp., 4, where Midgard is referred to by the word
salr) and found a landi Ask and Embla. These beings
were then "of little might" (lift megandi) and "without
destiny" (drldgslausir) ; they lacked ond, they lacked
odr, they had no la or l&ti or litr goda, but Odin gave
them ond, Honor gave them odr, Loder gave them la and
litr goda. In reference to the meaning of these words I

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

refer my readers to No. 95, simply noting here that litr
goda, hitherto defined as "good colour" (godr litr}, signi-
fies "the appearance (image) of gods." From looking
like trees Ask and Embla got the appearance which before
them none but the gods had assumed. The Teutons, like
the Greeks and Romans, conceived the gods in the image
of men.

Odin's words in Havamal, 43, refer to the same myth.

The passage explains that when the Asa-god saw the
modesty of the new-made human pair he gave them his
own divine garments to cover them. When they found
themselves so beautifully adorned it seems to indicate the
awakening sense of pride in the first human pair. The
words are: "In the field (velli at) I gave my clothes
to the two wooden men (tveim tremonnum). Heroes
they seemed to themselves when they got clothes. The
naked man is embarrassed."

But the expressions a landi and velli at should be ob-
served. That the trees grew on the ground, and that the
acts of creating and clothing took place there is so self-
evident that these words would be meaningless if they
were not called for by the fact that the authors of these
passages in Havamal and Voluspa had in their minds the
ground along the sea, that is, a sea-beach. This is also
clear from a tradition given in Gylfaginning, chapter 9,
according to which the three asas were walking along
the sea-beach (med scFvarstrondu) when they found Ask
and Embla, and created of them the first human pair.

Thus the first human pair were created on the beach
of an ocean. To which sea can the myth refer? The

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

question does not concern the ancient Aryan time, but
the Teutonic antiquity, not Asia, but Europe; and if we
furthermore limit it to the Christian era there can be but
one answer. Germany was bounded in the days of Taci-
tus, and long before his time, by Gaul, Rhoetia, and Pan-
nonia on the west and south, by the extensive territories
of the Sarmatians and Dacians on the east, and by the
ocean on the north. The so-called German Ocean, the
North Sea and the Baltic, was then the only body of water
within the horizon of the Teutons, the only one which in
the days of Jordanes, after the Goths long had ruled north
of the Black Sea, was thought to wash the primeval Teu-
tonic strands. The myth must therefore refer to the
German Ocean. It is certain that the borders of this
ocean where the myth has located the creation of the 'first
human pair, or the first Teutonic pair, was regarded as
the centre from which their descendants spread over more
and more territory. Where near the North Sea or the
Baltic was this centre located?

Even this question can be answered, thanks to the
mythic fragments preserved. A feature common to all
well-developed mythological systems is the view that the
human race in its infancy was under the special protec-
tion of friendly divinities, and received from them the
doctrines, arts, and trades without which all culture is
impossible. The same view is strongly developed among
the Teutons. Anglo-Saxon documents have rescued the
story telling how Ask's and Embla's descendants received
the first blessings of culture from the benign gods. The
story has come to us through Christian hands, which,

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

however, have allowed enougn of the original to remain
to show that its main purpose was to tell us how the great
gifts of culture came to the human race. The saga names
the land where this took place. The country was the
most southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, and
especially the part of it bordering on the western sea.
Had these statements come to us only from northern
sources, there would be good reason for doubting their
originality and general application to the Teutonic tribes.
The Icelandic-Norwegian middle-age literature abounds
in evidence of a disposition to locate the events of a myth
and the exploits of mythic persons in the author's own
land and town. But in this instance there is no room for
the suspicion that patriotism has given to the southern-
most part of the Scandinavian peninsula a so conspicuous
prominence in the earliest history of the myth. The
chief evidence is found in the traditions of the Saxons
in England, and this gives us the best clue to the unanim-
ity with which the sagas of the Teutonic continent, from
a time prior to the birth of Christ far down in the middle
ages, point out the great peninsula in the northern sea as
the land of the oldest ancestors, in conflict with the
scholastic opinion in regard to an emigration from Troy.
The region where the myth located the first dawn of hu-
man culture was certainly also the place which was re-
garded as the cradle and centre of the race.

The non-Scandinavian sources in question are: Beo-
wulf's poem, Ethelwerdus, Willielmus Malmesburiensis,
Simeon Dunelmensis, and Matthaeus Monasteriensis. A
closer examination of them reveals the fact that they have

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

their information from three different sources, which
again have a common origin in a heathen myth. If we
bring together what they have preserved of the story we
get the following result :*

One day it came to pass that a ship was seen sailing near
the coast of Scedeland or Scani,** and it approached the
land without being propelled either by oars or sails. The
ship came to the sea-beach, and there was seen lying in
it a little boy, who was sleeping with his head on a sheaf
of grain, surrounded by treasures and tools, by glaives
and coats of mail. The boat itself was steady and beau-
tifully decorated. Who he was and whence he came
nobody had any idea, but the little boy was received as if
he had been a kinsman, and he received the most constant
and tender care. As he came with a sheaf of grain to their
country the people called him Scef, Sceaf.*** (The Beo-
wulf poem calls him Scyld, son of Sceaf, and gives Scyld
the son Beowulf, which originally was another name of
Scyld.) Scef grew up among this people, became their
benefactor and king, and ruled most honourably for many
years. He died far advanced in age. In accordance
with his own directions, his body was borne down to the
strand where he had landed as a child. There in a little
harbour lay the same boat in which he had come. Glit-

*Geijer has partly indicated its significance in Svea Hikes Hafder,
where he says : "The tradition anent Sceaf Is remarkable, as it evidently
has reference to the introduction of agriculture, and shows that it was
first introduced in the most southern part of Scandinavia."

**The Beowulf poem has the name Scedeland (Scandia) : compare the
name Skadan in De origins Longobardorum. Ethelwerd writes : "Ipse Skef
cum uno dromone advectus est in insulam Oceani, quse dicitur Scani, armis
circumdatus," &c.

***Matthseus Westmonast. translates this name with frumenti mani-
pulus, a sheaf.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tering from hoar-frost and ice, and eager to return to the
sea, the boat was waiting to receive the dead king, and
around him the grateful and sorrowing people laid no
fewer treasures than those with which Scef had come.
And when all was finished the boat went out upon the sea,
and no one knows where it landed. He left a son Scyld
(according to the Beowulf poem, Beowulf son of Scyld),
who ruled after him. Grandson of the boy who came
with the sheaf was Healfdene — Halfdan, king of the
Danes (that is, according to the Beowulf poem).

The myth gives the oldest Teutonic patriarchs a very
long life, in the same manner as the Bible in the case of
Adam and his descendants. They lived for centuries (see
below). The story could therefore make the culture in-
troduced by Scef spread far and wide during his own
reign, and it could make his realm increase with the cul-
ture. According to scattered statements traceable to the
Scef-saga, Denmark, Angeln, and at least the northern
part of Saxland, have been populated by people who
obeyed his sceptre. In the North Gotaland and Svealand
were subject to him.

The proof of this, so far as Denmark is concerned, is
that, according to the Beowulf poem, its first royal family
was descended from Scef through his son Scyld (Skjold).
In accordance herewith, Danish and Icelandic genealogies
make Skjold the progenitor of the first dynasty in Den-
mark, and also make him the ruler of the land to which
his father came, that is, Skane. His origin as a divinely-
born patriarch, as a hero receiving divine worship, and as
the ruler of the original Teutonic country, appears also in

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Fornmannasogur, v. 239, where he is styled Skdninga
god, the god of the Scanians.

Matthseus Westmonast. informs us that Scef ruled in
Angeln.

According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, the dynasty
of Wessex came from Saxland, and its progenitor was
Scef.

If we examine the northern sources we discover that the
Scef myth still may be found in passages which have been
unnoticed, and that the tribes of the far North saw in
the boy who came with the sheaf and the tools the divine
progenitor of their celebrated dynasty in Upsala. This
can be found in spite of the younger saga-geological layer
which the hypothesis of Odin's and his Trojan Asas'
immigration has spread over it since the introduction of
Christianity. Scef's personality comes to the surface,
we shall see, as Skefill and Skelfir.

In the Fornalder-sagas, ii. 9, and in Flateyarbok, i. 24,
Skelfir is mentioned as family patriarch and as Skjold's
father, the progenitor of the Skjoldungs. There can,
therefore, be no doubt that Scef, Scyld's father, and
through him the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, originally
is the same as Skelfir, Skjold's father, and progenitor of
the Skjoldungs in these Icelandic works.

But he is not only the progenitor of the Skjoldungs,
but also of the Ynglings. The genealogy beginning with
him is called in the Flateryarbok, Skilfinga cett edr skjol-
dunga <ztt. The Younger Edda also (i. 522) knows
Skelfir, and says he was a famous king whose genealogy
er kollut skilvinga cett. Now the Skilfing race in the

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

oldest sources is precisely the same as the Yngling race
both from an Anglo-Saxon and from a heathen Norse
standpoint. The Beowulf poem calls the Swedish kings
scilfingas, and according to Thjodulf, a kinsman of the
Ynglings and a kinsman of the Skilfing, Skilfinga nidr,
are identical (Ynglingatal, 30). Even the Younger
Edda seems to be aware of this. It says in the passage
quoted above that the Skilfing race er i Austrvegum. In
the Thjodulf strophes Austruegar means simply Svealand,
and Austrkonungur means Swedish king.

Thus it follows that the Scef who is identical with
Skelfir was in the heathen saga of the North the common
progenitor of the Ynglinga and of the Skjoldunga race.
From his dignity as original patriarch of the royal fami-
lies of Sweden, Denmark, Angeln, Saxland, and England,
he was displaced by the scholastic fiction of the middle
ages concerning the immigration of Trojan Asiatics un-
der the leadership of Odin, who as the leader of the im-
migration also had to be the progenitor of the most dis-
tinguished families of the immigrants. This view seems
first to have been established in England after this coun-
try had been converted to Christianity and conquered by
the Trojan immigration hypothesis. Wodan is there
placed at the head of the royal genealogies of the chron-
icles, excepting in Wessex, where Scef is allowed to re-
tain his old position, and where Odin must content himself
with a secondary place in the genealogy. But in the
Beowulf poem Scef still retains his dignity as ancient
patriarch of the kings of Denmark.

From England this same distortion of the myth comes

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

to the North in connection with the hypothesis concerning"
the immigration of the "Asiamen," and is there finally
accepted in the most unconcerned manner, without the
least regard to the mythic records which were still well
known. Skjold, Scef's son, is without any hesitation
changed into a son of Odin (Ynglingasaga, 5; Foreword
to Gylfag., 11). Yngve, who as the progenitor of the
Ynglings is identical with Scef, and whose very name,
perhaps, is or has been conceived as an epithet indicating
Scef's tender age when he came to the coast of Scandia —
Yngve-Scef is .confounded with Frey, is styled Yngve-
Frey after the appellation of the Vanagod Ingunar Frey,
and he, too, is called a son of Odin (Foreword to Gylfag.,
c. 13), although Frey in the myth is a son of Njord and
belongs to another race of gods than Odin. The epithet
with which Are Frode in his Schedce characterises Yngve,
viz., Tyrkiakonungr, Trojan king, proves that the lad who
came with the sheaf of grain to Skane is already in Are
changed into a Trojan.

21.

SCEF THE AUTHOR OF CULTURE IDENTICAL WITH HEIM-
DAL-RIG, THE ORIGINAL PATRIARCH.

But in one respect Are Frode or his authority has paid
attention to the genuine mythic tradition, and that is by
making the Vana-gods the kinsmen of the descendants
of Yngve. This is correct in the sense that Scef- Yngve,
the son of a deity transformed into a man, was in the myth
a Vana-god. Accordingly every member of the Yngling

135

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

race and every descendant of Scef may be styled a son of
Frey (Preys dttungr), epithets applied by Thjodulf in
Ynglingatal in regard to the Upsala kings. They are
gifts from the Vana-gods — the implements which point
to the opulent Njord, and the grain sheaf which is Frey's
symbol — which Scef-Yngve brings with him to the an-
cient people of Scandia, and his rule is peaceful and rich
in blessings.

Scef-Yngve comes across the ocean. Vanaheim was
thought to be situated on the other side of it, in the same
direction as ^gir's palace in the great western ocean and
in the outermost domain of Jormumgrund (see 93).
This is indicated in Lokasenna, 34, where Loke in ^gir's
hall says to the Van Njord : "You were sent from here
to the East as a hostage to the gods ( thu vart austr he dan
gisl urn sendr at godum). Thus Njord's castle Noatun
is situated in the West, on a strand outside of which the
swans sing (Gylfag., 23). In the faded memory of
Scef, preserved in the saga of the Lower Rhine and of
the Netherlands, there comes to a poverty-stricken people
a boat in which there lies a sleeping youth. The boat is,
like Scef's, without sails or oars, but is drawn over the
billows by a swan. From Gylfaginning, 16, we learn
that there are myths telling of the origin of the swans.
They are all descended from that pair of swans which
swim in the sacred waters of Urd's fountain. Thus the
descendants of these swans that sing outside of the Vana-
palace Noatun and their arrival to the shores of Midgard
seems to have some connection with the coming of the
Van Scef and of culture.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The Vans most prominent in the myths are Njord,
Frey, and Heimdal. Though an Asa-god by adoption,
Heimdal is like Njord and Frey a Vana-god by birth and
birthplace, and is accordingly called both ass and vanr
(Thrymskv., 15). Meanwhile these three divinities, defi-
nitely named Vans, are only a few out of many. The
Vans have constituted a numerous clan, strong enough
to wage a victorious war against the Asas (Volusp.).
Who among them was Scef-Yngve? The question can
be answered as follows:

(1) Of Heimdal, and of him alone among the gods,
it is related that he lived for a time among men as a man,
and that he performed that which is attributed to Scef —
that is, organised and elevated human society and became
the progenitor of sacred families in Midgard.

(2) Rigsthula relates that the god Heimdal, having
assumed the name Rig, begot with an earthly woman the
son Jarl-Rig, who in turn became the father of Konr-Rig.
Konr-Rig is, as the very name indicates and as Vigfusson
already has pointed out, the first who bore the kingly
name. In Rigsthula the Jarl begets the king, as in Yng-
lingasaga the judge (Domarr) begets the first king. Rig
is, according to Ynglingasaga, ch. 20, grandfather to
Dan, who is a Skjoldung. Heimdal-Rig is thus the
father of the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, and it is the
story of the divine origin of the Skjoldungs Rigsthula
gives us when it sings of Heimdal as Jarl's father and the
first king's grandfather. But the progenitor of the
Skjoldungs is, according to both Anglo-Saxon and the
northern sources above quoted, Scef. Thus Heimdal and
Scef are identical. j 7

10 67

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

These proofs are sufficient. More can be presented,
and the identity will be established by the whole investi-
gation.

As a tender boy, Heimdal was sent by the Vans to the
southern shores of Scandinavia with the gifts of culture.
Hyndla's lay tells how these friendly powers prepared the
child for its important mission, after it was born in the
outermost borders of the earth (vid fardar thrcwm), in a
wonderful manner, by nine sisters (Hyndla's Lay, 35;
Heimdallar Galdr., in the Younger Edda; compare No.
82, where the ancient Aryan root of the myth concern-
ing Heimdal's nine mothers is pointed out).

For its mission the child had to be equipped with
strength, endurance, and wisdom. It was given to drink
jardar magn svalkaldr sar and Sonar dreyri. ' It is nec-
essary to compare these expressions with Urdar magn,
svalkaldr seer and Sonar dreyri in Gudrunarkivda, ii. 21,
a song written in Christian times, where this reminiscence
of a triple heathen-mythic drink reappears as a potion of
forgetfulness allaying sorrow. The expression Sonar
dreyri shows that the child had tasted liquids from the
subterranean fountains which water Yggdrasil and sus-
tain the spiritual and physical life of the universe (cp.
Nos. 63 and 93). Son contains the mead of inspiration
and wisdom. In Gylfaginning, which quotes a satire of
late origin, this name is given to a jar in which Suttung
preserves this valuable liquor, but to the heathen skalds
Son is the name of Mimer's fountain, which contains the
highest spiritual gifts, and around whose rush-bordered
edge the reeds of poetry grow (Eilif Gudrunson, Skald-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

skaparmal). The child Heimdal has, therefore, drunk
from Mimer's fountain. Jar dor magn (the earth's
strength) is in reality the same as Urdar magn, the
strength of the water in Urd's fountain, which keeps the
world-tree ever green and sustains the physical life of
creation (Volusp.). The third subterranean fountain is
Hvergelmer, with hardening liquids. From Hvergel-
mer comes the river Sval, and the venom-cold Elivogs
(Grimner's Lay, Gylfaginning) . Svalkaldar seer, cool
sea, is an appropriate designation of this fountain.

When the child has been strengthened in this manner
for its great mission, it is laid sleeping in the decorated
ship, gets the grain-sheaf for its pillow, and numerous
treasures are placed around it. It is certain that there
were not only weapons and ornaments, but also work-
men's tools among the treasures. It should be borne in
mind that the gods made on the plains of Ida not only
ornaments, but also tools (tangir skopu ok tol gordu).
Evidence is presented in No. 82 that Scef-Heimdal
brought the fire-auger to primeval man who until that
time had lived without the blessings produced by the
sacred fire.

The boy grows up among the inhabitants on the Scan-
dian coast, and, when he has developed into manhood,
human culture has germinated under his influence and the
beginnings of classes in society with distinct callings ap-
pear. In Rigsthula, we find him journeying along
"green paths, from house to house, in that land which his
presence has blessed." Here he is called Rigr — it is true
of him as of nearly all mythological persons, that he has

139

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

several names — but the introduction to the poem informs
us that the person so called is the god Heimdal (tinhverr
af asum< sd er Heimdallr het). The country is here also
described as situated near the sea. Heimdal journeys
framm med sjofarstrondu. Culture is in complete oper-
ation. The people are settled, they spin and weave, per-
form handiwork, and are smiths, they plough and bake,
and Heimdal has instructed them in runes. Different
homes show different customs and various degrees of
wealth, but happiness prevails everywhere. Heimdal
visits Ai's and Edda's unpretentious home, is hospitably
received, and remains three days. Nine months there-
after the son Tral (thrall) is born to this family. Heim-
dal then visits Ave's and Amma's well-kept and cleanly
house, and nine months thereafter the son Karl (churl)
is born in this household. Thence Rig betakes himself
to Fadir's and Modir's elegant home. There is born,
nine months later, the son Jarl. Thus the three Teutonic
classes — the thralls, the freemen, and the nobility — have
received their divine sanction from Heimdal-Rig, and all
three have been honoured with divine birth.

In the account of Rig's visit to the three different homes
lies the mythic idea of a common fatherhood, an idea
which must not be left out of sight when human heroes
are described as sons of gods in the mythological and
heroic sagas. They are sons of the gods and, at the same
time, from a genealogical standpoint, men. Their pedi-
gree, starting with Ask and Embla, is not interrupted by
the intervention of the visiting god, nor is there de-
veloped by this intervention a half-divine, half-human

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

middle class or bastard clan. The Teutonic patriarch
Mannus is, according to Tacitus, the son of a god and the
grandson of the goddess Earth. Nevertheless he is, as
his name indicates, in the full physical sense of the word,
a man, and besides his divine father he has had a human
father. They are the descendants of Ask and Embla,
men of all classes and conditions, whom Voluspa's skald
gathered around the seeress when she was to present to
them a view of the world's development and commanded
silence with the formula : "Give ear, all ye divine races,
great and small, sons of Heimdal." The idea of a com-
mon fatherhood we find again in the question of Fadir's
grandson, as we shall show below. Through him the
families of chiefs get the right of precedence before both
the other classes. Thor becomes their progenitor.
While all classes trace their descent from Heimdal, the
nobility trace theirs also from Thor, and through him
from Odin.

Heimdal-Rig's and Fadir's son, begotten with Modir,
inherits in Rigsthula the name of the divine co-father,
and is called Rig Jarl. Jarl's son, Kon, gets the same
name after he has given proof of his knowledge in the
runes introduced among the children of men by Heim-
dal, and has even shown himself superior to his father
in this respect. This view that the younger generation
surpasses the older points to the idea of a progress in
culture among men, during a time when they live in peace
and happiness protected by Heimdal's fostering care and
sceptre, but must not be construed into the theory of a
continued progress based on the law and nature of things,

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

a theory alike strange to the Teutons and to the other
peoples of antiquity. Heimdal-Rig's reign must be re-
garded as the happy ancient age, of which nearly all
mythologies have dreamed. Already in the next age
following, that is, that of the second patriarch, we read
of men of violence who visit the peaceful, and under the
third patriarch begins the "knife-age, and axe-age with
cloven shields," which continues through history and re-
ceives its most terrible development before Ragnarok.

The more common mythical names of the persons ap-
pearing in Rigsthula are not mentioned in the song, not
even Heimdal's. In strophe 48, the last of the fragment,
we find for the first time words which have the character
of names — Danr and Danpr. A crow sings from the tree
to Jarl's son, the grandson of Heimdal, Kon, saying that
peaceful amusement (kyrra fugla) does not become him
longer, but that he should rather mount his steed and fight
against men ; and the crow seeks to awaken his ambition
or jealousy by saying that "Dan and Danp, skilled in
navigating ships and wielding swords, have more precious
halls and a better freehold than you." The circumstance
that these names are mentioned makes it possible, as shall
be shown below, to establish in a more satisfactory man-
ner the connection between Rigsthula and other accounts
which are found in fragments concerning the Teutonic
patriarch period.

The oldest history of man did not among the Teutons
begin with a paradisian Condition. Some time has
elaspsed between the creation of Ask and Embla, and
Heimdal's coming among men. As culture begins with

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Heimdal, a condition of barbarism must have preceded
his arrival. At all events the first generations after Ask
and Embla have been looked upon as lacking fire ; conse-
quently they have been without the art of the smith, with-
out metal implements, and without knowledge of agricul-
ture. Hence it is that the Vana-child comes across the
western sea with fire, with implements, and with the
sheaf of grain. But the barbarous condition may have
been attended with innocence and goodness of heart. The
manner in which the strange child was received by the in-
habitants of Scandia's coast, and the tenderness with
which it was cared for (diligenti ammo, says Ethelwerd)
seem to indicate this.

When Scef-Heimdal had performed his mission, and
when the beautiful boat in which he came had disappeared
beyond the western horizon, then the second mythic pa-
triarch-age begins.

HEIMDAL/S SON BORGAR-SKJOLD, THE SECOND PATRIARCH.

Ynglingasaga, ch. 20, contains a passage which is
clearly connected with Rigsthula or with some kindred
source. The passage mentions three persons who ap-
pear in Rigsthula, viz., Rig, Danp, and Dan, and it is
there stated that the ruler who first possessed the kingly
title in Svithiod was the son of a chief, whose name was
Judge (Domarr), and Judge was married to Drott
(Drott'), the daughter of Danp.

That Domar and his royal son, the latter with the

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

epithet Dyggvi, "the worthy," "the noble," were after-
wards woven into the royal pedigree in Ynglingasaga,
is a matter which we cannot at present consider. Vigfus-
son (Corpus Poet. Bor.) has already shown the mythic
symbolism and unhistorical character of this royal pedi-
gree's Visburr, the priest, son of a god; of Domaldr-
Domvaldr, the legislator; of Domarr, the judge; and of
Dyggvi, the first king. These are not historical Upsala
kings, but personified myths, symbolising the development
of human society on a religious basis into a political con-
dition of law culminating in royal power. It is in short
the same chain of ideas as we find in Rigsthula, where
Heimdal, the son of a god and the founder of culture, be-
comes the father of the Jarl-judge, whose son is the first
king. Domarr, in the one version of the chain of ideas,
corresponds to Rig Jarl in the other, and Dyggvi corre-
sponds to Kon. Heimdal is the first patriarch, the Jarl-
judge is the second, and the oldest of kings is the third.
Some person, through whose hands Ynglingasaga has
passed before it got its present form in Heimskringla,
has understood this correspondence between Domarr and
Rig- Jarl, and has given to the former the wife which
originally belonged to the latter. Rigsthula has been
rescued in a single manuscript. This manuscript was
owned by Arngrim Jonsson, the author of Supplementum
Histories Norvegice, and was perhaps in his time, as
Bugge (Norr. Fornkv.} conjectures, less fragmen-
tary than it now is. Arngrim relates that Rig Jarl was
married to a daughter of Danp, lord of Danpsted. Thus
the representative of the Jarl's dignity, like the represen-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tative of the Judge's dignity in Ynglingasaga, is here mar-
ried to Danp's daughter.

In Saxo, a man by name Borgar (Borcarus — Hist.
Dan. 336-354) occupies an important position. He is a
South Scandinavian chief, leader of Skane's warriors
(Borcarus cum Scanico equitatu, p. 350), but instead of
a king's title, he holds a position answering to that of
the Jarl. Meanwhile he, like Skjold, becomes the founder
of a Danish royal dynasty. Like Skjold he fights beasts
and robbers, and like him he wins his bride, sword in
hand. Borgar's wife is Drott (Drotta, Drota), the same
name as Danp's daughter. Skjold's son Gram and Bor-
gar's son Half dan are found on close examination (see
below) to be identical with each other, and with king
Halfdan Berggram in whom the names of both are united.
Thus we find :

(1) That Borgar appears as a chief in Skane, which
in the myth is the cradle of the human race, or of the
Teutonic race. As such he is also mentioned in Script,
rer. Dan. (pp. 16-19, 154), where he is called Burgarus
and Borgardus.

(2) That he has performed similar exploits to those
of Skjold, the son of Scef-Heimdal.

(3) That he is not clothed with kingly dignity, but
has a son who founds a royal dynasty in Denmark. This
corresponds to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl, who is not him-
self styled king, but whose son becomes a Danish king
and the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(4) That he is married to Drott, who, according to
Ynglingasaga, is Danp's daughter. This corresponds

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

to Heimdal's son Rig Jarl, who takes a daughter of Danp
as his wife.

(5) That his son is identical with the son of Skjold,
the progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

(6) That this son of his is called Half dan, while in
the Anglo-Saxon sources Scef, through his son Scyld
(Skjold), is the progenitor of Denmark's king Healf-
dene.

These testimonies contain incontestible evidence that
Skjold, Borgar, and Rig Jarl are names of the same
mythic person, the son of the ancient patriarch Heimdal,
and himself the second patriarch, who, after Heimdal,
determines the destiny of his race. The name Borgarr
is a synonym of Skjoldr. The word Skjoldr has from
the beginning had, or has in the lapse of past ages ac-
quired, the meaning "the protecting one," "the shielding
one," and as such it was applied to the common defensive
armour, the shield. Borgarr is derived from bjarga
(past. part, borginn; cp. borg), and thus has the same
meaning, that is, "the defending or protecting one."
From Norse poetry a multitude of examples can be given
of the paraphrasing of a name with another, or even sev-
eral others, of similar meaning.

The second patriarch, Heimdal's son, thus has the
names Skjold, Borgar, and Rig Jarl in the heathen tradi-
tions, and those derived therefrom.

In German poems of the middle age ( "Wolf dieterich,"
"Konig Ruther," and others) Borgar is remembered by
the name Berchtung, Berker, and Berther. His mythic
character as ancient patriarch is there well preserved.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

He is der grise mann, a Teutonic Nestor, wears a beard
reaching to the belt, and becomes 250 years old. He
was fostered by a king Anzius, the progenitor of the
Amelungs (the Amalians). The name Anzius points to
the Gothic ansi (Asagod). Borgar's fostering by "the
white Asa-god" has accordingly not been forgotten.
Among the exercises taught him by Anzius are daz werfen
mit dem messer und schissen zu dem zil (compare Rig
Jarl's exercises, Rigsthula, 35). Like Borgar, Berch-
tung is not a king, but a very noble and greatly-trusted
chief, wise and kind, the foster-father and counsellor of
heroes and kings. The Norse saga places Borgar, and
the German saga places Berchtung, in close relation to
heroes who belong to the race of Hildings. Borgar is,
according to Saxo, the stepfather of Hildeger ; Berchtung
is, according to "Wolfdieterich," Hildebrand's ancestor.
Of Hildeger Saxo relates in part the same as the Ger-
man poem tells of Hildebrand. Berchtung becomes the
foster-father of an Amalian prince; with Borgar's son
grows up as foster-brother Hamal (Helge Hund., 2; see
Nos. 29, 42), whose name points to the Amalian race.
The very name Borgarr, which, as indicated, in this form
refers to bjarga, may in an older form have been related
to the name Berchter, Berchtung.

23.

BORGAR-SKJOLD'S SON HALFDAN, THE THIRD PATRIARCH.

The Identity of Gram, Half dan Berggram, and Halfdan
Borgarson.
In the time of Borgar and his son, the third patriarch,

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

many of the most important events of the myth take
place. Before I present these, the chain of evidence re-
quires that I establish clearly the names applied to Borgar
in our literary sources. Danish scholars have already
discovered what I pointed out above, that the kings Gram
Skjoldson, Halfdan Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson
mentioned by Saxo, and referred to different generations,
are identical with each other and with Halfdan the Skjol-
dung and Halfdan the Old of the Icelandic documents.

The correctness of this view will appear from the fol-
lowing parallels :*

*The first nine books of Saxo form a labyrinth constructed out of myths
related as history, but the thread of Ariadne seems to be wanting. On this
account it might be supposed that Saxo had treated the rich mythical
materials at his command in an arbitrary and unmethodical manner ; and
we must bear in mind that these mythic materials were far more abundant
in his time than they were in the following centuries, when they were to
be recorded by the Icelandic authors. This supposition is, however, wrong.
Saxo has examined his sources methodically and with scrutiny, and has
handled them with all due reverence, when he assumed the desperate task
of constructing, by the aid of the mythic traditions and heroic poems at
hand, a chronicle spanning several centuries — a chronicle in which fifty to
sixty successive rulers were to be brought upon the stage and off again,
while myths and heroic traditions embrace but few generations, and most
mythic persons continue to exist through all ages. In the very nature of
the case, Saxo was obliged, in order to solve this problem, to put his
material on the rack ; but a thorough study of the above-mentioned books
of his history shows that he treated the delinquent with consistency. The
simplest of the rules he followed was to avail himself of the polyonomy
with which the myths and heroic poems are overloaded, and to do so in the
following manner :

Assume that a person in the mythic or heroic poems had three or four
names or epithets (he may have had a score). We will call this person A,
and the different forms of his name A', A", A'". Saxo's task of producing
a chain of events running through many centuries forced him to consider
the three names A', A", and A'" as originally three persons, who had per-
formed certain similar exploits, and therefore had, in course of time, been
confounded with each other, and blended by the authors of myths and
stories into one person A. As best he can, Saxo tries to resolve this
mythical product, composed, in his opinion, of historical elements, and to
distribute the exploits attributed to A between A', A", and A'". It may
also be that one or more of the stories applied to A were found more or
less varied in different sources. In such cases he would report the same
stories with slight variations about A', A", and A'". The similarities re-
maining form one important group of indications which he has furnished
to guide us, but which can assure us that pur investigation is in the right
course only when corroborated by indications belonging to other groups,
or corroborated by statements preserved in other sources.

But in the events which Saxo in this manner relates about A', A", and
A"', other persons are also mentioned. We will assume that in the myths

148

3. '

Saxo: Gram slays king Sictrugus, and marries Signe,

daughter of Sumblus, king of the Finns.
Hyndluljod: Halfdan Skjoldung slays king Sigtrygg, and

marries Almveig with the consent of Eymund.
Prose Edda: Halfdan the Old slays king Sigtrygg, and

marries Alveig, daughter of Eyvind.
Fornald. S. : Halfdan the Old slays king Sigtrygg, and

marries Alfny, daughter of Eymund.

Saxo: Gram, son of Skjold, is the progenitor of the Skjol-

dungs.
Hyndluljod: Halfdan Skjoldung, son or descendant of

Skjold, is the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, Ynglings,

Odlungs, &c.
Prose Edda: Halfdan the Old is the progenitor of the

Hildings, Ynglings, Odlungs, &c.
Saxo: Halfdan Bogarson is the progenitor of a royal

family of Denmark.

Saxo: Gram uses a club as a weapon. He kills seven
brothers and nine of their half-brothers.

Saxo: Halfdan Berggram uses an oak as a weapon. He
kills seven brothers.

Saxo: Halfdan Borgarson uses an oak as a weapon. He
kills twelve brothers.

and heroic poems these have been named B and C. These, too, have in
the songs of the skalds had several names and epithets. B has also been
called B', B", B"'. C has also been styled C', C", C'". Out of this one
subordinate person B, Saxo, by the aid of the abundance of names, makes
as many subordinate persons — B', B", and B'" — as he made out of the
original chief person A — that is, the chief persons A', A", and A'". Thus
also with C, and in this way we got the following analogies :

A' is to B' and C' as
A" B" C" and as

A'" B'" C'".

By comparing all that is related concerning these nine names, we are
enabled gradually to form a more or less correct idea of what the original
myth has contained in regard to A, B, and C. If it then happens — as is
often the case — that two or more of the names A', B', C', &c., are found
in Icelandic or other documents, and there belong to persons whose ad-
ventures are in some respects the same, and in other respects are made
clearer and more complete, by what Saxo tells about A', A", and A'", &c.,
then it is proper to continue the investigation in the direction thus started.
If, then, every new step brings forth new confirmations from various
sources, and if a myth thus restored easily dovetails itself into an epic

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

'Saxo: Gram secures Groa and slays Henricus on his wed-
ding-day.

Saxo: Halfdan Berggram marries Sigrutha, after having
slain Ebbo on his wedding-day.

Saxo: Halfdan Borgarson marries Guritha, after having
killed Sivarus on his wedding-day.

Saxo: Gram, who slew a Swedish king, is attacked in war

by Svipdag.

Saxo: Halfdan Berggram, who slew a Swedish king, is
5_ J attacked by Ericus.

Combined sources: Svipdag is the slain Swedish king's

grandson (daughter's son).
Saxo: Ericus is the son of the daughter of the slain Swedish

king.

These parallels are sufficient to show the identity of
Gram Skjoldson, Halfdan Berggram, and Halfdan Bor-
garson. A closer analysis of these sagas, the synthesis
possible on the basis of such an analysis, and the posi-
tion the saga (restored in this manner) concerning the
third patriarch, the son of Skjold-Borgar, and the grand-
son of Heimdal, assumes in the chain of mythic events,
gives complete proof of this identity.

cycle of myths, and there forms a necessary link in the chain of events,
then the investigation has produced the desired result.

An aid in the investigation is not unfrequently the circumstance that
the names at Saxo's disposal were not sufficient for all points in the above
scheme. We then find analogies which open for us, so to speak, short cuts
— for instance, as follows :

A' is to B' and C' as

' A" B' C" and as

A'" B" C'.

The parallels given in the text above are a concrete example of the above

scheme. For we have seen —

A = Halfdan, trebled in A' = Gram, A" = Halfdan Berggram, A'" = Halfdan

Borgarson.
B = Ebbo (Ebur, Ibor. Jofurr), trebled in B' = Henricus, B" = Ebbo,

B'" = Sivarus.
C doubled In C' = Svipdag, and C" = Ericus.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

24.

ENMITY WITH ORVANDEL, AND SVIPDAG (cp.
No. 33).

Saxo relates in regard to Gram that he carried away
the royal daughter Groa, though she was already bound
to another man, and that he slew her father, whereupon
he got into a feud with Svipdag, an irreconcilably bitter
foe, who fought against him with varying success of arms,
and gave himself no rest until he had taken Gram's life
and realm. Gram left two sons, whom Svipdag treated
in a very different manner. The one named Guthormus
( Gudhormr} , who was a son of Groa, he received into his
good graces. To the other, named Hadingus, or Had-
ding, and who was a son of Signe, he transferred the
deadly hate he had cherished towards the father. The
cause of the hatred of Svipdag against Gram, and which
could not be extinguished in his blood, Saxo does not
mention, but this point is cleared up by a comparison with
other sources. Nor does Saxo mention who the person
was from whom Gram robbed Groa, but this, too, we learn
in another place.

The Groa of the myth is mentioned in two other places :
in Groagalder and in Gylfaginning. Both sources agree in
representing her as skilled in good, healing, harm-avert-
ing songs; both also in describing her as a tender person
devoted to the members of her family. In Gylfaginning
she is the loving wife who forgets everything in her joy
that her husband, the brave archer Orvandel, has been
saved by Thor from a dangerous adventure. In Groa-

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

galder she is the mother whose love to her son conquers
death and speaks consoling and protecting words from
the grave. Her husband is, as stated, Orvandel ; her son
is Svipdag.

If we compare the statements in Saxo with those in
Groagalder and Gylfaginning we get the following re-
sult:

Saxo: King Sigtrygg has a daughter Groa.

Gylfaginning: Groa is married to the brave Orvandel.

Groagalder: Groa has a son Svipdag.

Saxo: Groa is robbed by Gram-Halfdan.

Saxo: "\ Hostilities on account of the robbing of

Hyndluljod: the woman. Gram-Halfdan kills

Skaldskap.mal: ) Groa's father Sigtrygg.

Saxo: With Gram-Halfdan Groa has the son Gudhorm.
Gram-Halfdan is separated from Groa. He courts
Signe (Almveig in Hyndluljod; Alveig in Skaldska-
parmal), daughter of Sumbel, king of the Finns.

Groagalder: Groa with her son Svipdag is once more with
her first husband. Groa dies. Svipdag's father Or-
vandel marries a second time. Before her death Groa
has told Svipdag that he, if need requires her help,
must go to her grave and wake her out of the sleep
of death.

The stepmother gives Svipdag a task which he thinks sur-
passes his strength. He then goes to his mother's
grave. From the grave Groa sings protecting incan-
tations over her son.

Saxo: Svipdag attacks Gram-Halfdan. After several con-
flicts he succeeds in conquering him and gives him a
deadly wound.

Svidpdag pardons the son Gram-Halfdan has had with
Groa, but persecutes his son with Signe (Alveig).

In this connection we find the key to Svipdag's irrecon-
cilable conflict with Gram-Halfdan. He must revenge

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

himself on him on his father's and mother's account. He
must avenge his mother's disgrace, his grandfather Sig-
trygg's death, and, as a further investigation shows, the
murder also of his father Orvandel. We also find why
he pardons Gudhorm: he is his own half-brother and
Groa's son.

Sigtrygg, Groa, Orvandel, and Svipdag have in the
myth belonged to the pedigree of the Ynglings, and hence
Saxo calls Sigtrygg king in Svithiod. Concerning the
Ynglings, Ynglingasaga remarks that Yngve was the
name of everyone who in that time was the head of the
family (Yngl., p. 20). Svipdag, the favourite hero of
the Teutonic mythology, is accordingly celebrated in song
under the name Yngve, and also under other names to
which I shall refer later, when I am to give a full account
of the myth concerning him.

25.
HALFDAN'S IDENTITY WITH MANNUS IN "GERMANIA."

With Gram-Halfdan the Teutonic patriarch period
ends. The human race had its golden age under Heim-
dal, its copper age under Skjold-Borgar, and the begin-
ning of its iron age under Half dan. The Skilfinga-Yng-
linga race has been named after Heimdal-Skelfir himself,
and he has been regarded as its progenitor. His son
Skjold-Borgar has been considered the founder of the
Skjoldungs. With Halfdan the pedigree is divided into
three through his stepson Yngve-Svipdag, the latter's
half-brother Gudhorm, and Gudhorm's half-brother Had-

11 153

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ing or Hadding. The war between these three — a con-
tinuation of the feud between Halfdan and Svipdag — was
the subject of a cycle of songs sung throughout Teuton-
dom, songs which continued to live though greatly
changed with the lapse of time, on the lips of Germans
throughout the middle ages (see Nos. 36-43).

Like his father, Halfdan was the fruit of a double
fatherhood, a divine and a human. Saxo was aware of
this double fatherhood, and relates of his Halfdan Berg-
gram that he, although the son of a human prince, was
respected as a son of Thor, and honoured as a god among
that people who longest remained heathen ; that is to say,
the Swedes (Igitur apud Sveones tantus haberi ccepit,
ut magni Thor filius existimatus, dvuinis a popwlo honori-
bus donaretur ac publico dignus libamine censeretur).
In his saga, as told by Saxo, Thor holds his protecting
hand over Halfdan like a father over his son.

It is possible that both the older patriarchs originally
were regarded rather as the founders and chiefs of the
whole human race than of the Teutons alone. Certain
it is that the appellation Teutonic patriarch belonged more
particularly to the third of the series. We have a remin-
iscence of this in Hyndluljod, 14-16. To the question,
"Whence came the Skjoldungs, Skilfings, Andlungs, and
Ylfings, and all the free-born and gentle-born?" the song
answers by pointing to "the foremost among the Skjol-
dungs"— Sigtrygg's slayer Halfdan — a statement which,
after the memory of the myths had faded and become
confused, was magnified in the Younger Edda into the
report that he was the father of eighteen sons, nine of

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

which were the founders of the heroic families whose
names were at that time rediscovered in the heathen-
heroic songs then extant.

According to what we have now stated in regard to
Halfdan's genealogical position there can no longer be
any doubt that he is the same patriarch as the Mannus
mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, ch. 2, where it is said
of the Germans: "In old songs they celebrate Tuisco, a
god born of Earth (Terra; compare the goddess Terra
Mater, ch. 40), and his son Mannus as the source and
founder of the race. Mannus is said to have had three sons,
after whose names those who dwell nearest the ocean are
called Ingaevonians (Ingcuvones) , those who dwell in the
centre Hermionians (Hermiones, Herminones}, and the
rest Istsevonians (Istavones}" Tacitus adds that there
were other Teutonic tribes, such as the Marsians, the
Gambrivians, the Svevians, and the Vandals, whose names
were derived from other heroes of divine birth.

Thus Mannus, though human, and the source and
founder of the Teutonic race, is also the son of a god.
The mother of his divine father is the goddess Earth,
mother Earth. In our native myths we rediscover this
goddess— polyonomous like nearly all mythic beings — in
Odin's wife Frigg, also called Fjorgyn and Hlodyn. As
sons of her and Odin only Thor (Volusp.) and Balder
(Lokasenna) are definitely mentioned.

In regard to the goddess Earth (Jord), Tacitus states
(ch. 40), as a characteristic trait that she is believed
to take a lively interest and active part in the affairs of
men and nations (earn intervenire rebus hominum, invehi

155

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

populis arbitrantur) , and he informs us that she is espe-
cially worshipped by the Longobardians and some of their
neighbours near the sea. This statement, compared with
the emigration saga of the Longobardians (No. 15), con-
firms the theory that the goddess Jord, who, in the days
of Tacitus, was celebrated in song as the mother of Man-
nus' divine father, is identical with Frigg. In their emi-
gration saga the Longobardians have great faith in Frigg,
and trust in her desire and ability to intervene when the
fate of a nation is to be decided by arms. Nor are they
deceived in their trust in her; she is able to bring about
that Odin, without considering the consequences, gives
the Longobardians a new name; and as a christening
present was in order, and as the Longobardians stood ar-
rayed against the Vandals at the moment when they re-
ceived their new name, the gift could be no other than
victory over their foes. Tacitus' statement, that the
Longobardians were one of the races who particularly
paid worship to the goddess Jord, is found to be inti-
mately connected with, and to be explained by, this tra-
dition, which continued to be remembered among the
Longobardians long after they became converted to Chris-
tianity, down to the time when Origo Longobardorum
was written.

Tacitus calls the goddess Jord Nerthus. Vigfusson
(and before him J. Grimm) and others have seen in this
name a feminine version of Njordr. Nor does any other
explanation seem possible. The existence of such a form
is not more surprising than that we have in Freyja a femi-
nine form of Frey, and in Fjorgyn-Frigg a feminine form

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of Fjorgynr. In our mythic documents neither Frigg
nor Njord are of Asa race. Njord is, as we know, a
Van. Frigg's father is Fjorgynr (perhaps the same as
Parganya in the Vedic songs), also called Annarr, Anarr,
and Onarr, and her mother is Narve's daughter Night.
Frigg's high position as Odin's real and lawful wife, as
the queen of the Asa world, and as mother of the chief
gods Thor and Balder, presupposes her to be of the noblest
birth which the myth could bestow on a being born out-
side of the Asa clan, and as the Vans come next after the
Asas in the mythology, and were united with them from
the beginning of time, as hostages, by treaty, by mar-
riage, and by adoption, probability, if no other proof
could be found, would favour the theory that Frigg is a
goddess of the race of Vans, and that her father Fjorgyn
is a clan-chief among the Vans. This view is corrobor-
ated in two ways. The cosmogony makes Earth and Sea
sister and brother. The same divine mother Night
(Nat), who bears the goddess Jord, also bears a son
Udr, Unnr, the ruler of the sea, also called Audr (Rich),
the personification of wealth. Both these names are ap-
plied among the gods to Njord alone as the god of navi-
gation, commerce, and wealth. (In reference to wealth
compare the phrase audigr sem Nj'ordr — rich as Njord.)
Thus Frigg is Njord's sister. This explains the attitude
given to Frigg in the war between the Asas and Vans by
Voluspa, Saxo, and the author of Ynglingasaga, where
the tradition is related as history. In the form given to
this tradition in Christian times and in Saxo's hands, it
is disparaging to Frigg as Odin's wife; but the pith of

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Saxo's narrative is, that Frigg in the feud between the
Asas and Vans did not side with Odin but with the Vans,
and contributed towards making the latter lords of As-
gard. When the purely heathen documents (Volusp.,
Vafthr., Lokas.) describe her as a tender wife and mother,
Frigg's taking part with the Vans against her own hus-
band can scarcely be explained otherwise than by the Teu-
tonic principle, that the duties of the daughter and sister
are above the wife's, a view plainly presented in Saxo
(p. 353), and illustrated by Gudrun's conduct toward
Atle.

Thus it is proved that the god who is the father of the
Teutonic patriarch Mannus is himself the son of Frigg,
the goddess of earth, and must, according to the mythic
records at hand, be either Thor or Balder. The name
given him by Tacitus, Tuisco, does not determine which
of the two. Tuisco has the form of a patronymic ad-
jective, and reappears in the Norse Tim, an old name of
Odin, related to Dios divus, and devas, from which all
the sons of Odin and gods of Asgard received the epithet
tivar. But in the songs learned by Saxo in regard to the
northern race-patriarch and his divine father, his place
is occupied by Thor, not by Balder, and "Jord's son" is
in Norse poetry an epithet particularly applied to Thor.

Mannus has three sons. So has Halfdan. While
Mannus has a son Ingcevo, Halfdan has a stepson Yngve,
Inge (Svipdag). The second son of Mannus is named
Hermio. Halfdan's son with Groa is called Gudhormr.
The second part of this name has, as Jessen has already
pointed out, nothing to do with ormr. It may be that

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the name should be divided Gud-hormr, and that hormr
should be referred to Hermio. Mannus' third son is
Ist&vo. The Celtic scholar Zeuss has connected this
name with that of the Gothic (more properly Vandal)
heroic race Azdingi, and Grimm has again connected Az-
digni with Hazdiggo (Haddingr). Halfdan's third son
is in Saxo called Hadingus. Whether the comparisons
made by Zeuss and Grimm are to the point or not (see
further, No. 43) makes but little difference here. It
nevertheless remains as a result of the investigation that
all is related by Tacitus about the Teutonic patriarch
Mannus has its counterpart in the question concerning
Halfdan, and that both in the myths occupy precisely the
same place as sons of a god and as founders of Teutonic
tribes and royal families. The pedigrees are :

Tacitus. Norse documents.

Tivi and the goddess Jord. Tivi=Odin and the goddess

Jord.

Tivi's son (Tiusco). Tivi's son Thor.

Mannus, progenitor of the Halfdan, progenitor of the
Teutonic tribes. royal families.

r ~r ~i r ~r i

Ingaevo. Hermio. Istaevo. Yngve. Gudhormr. Hadding.

26.

THE SACRED RUNES LEARNED FROM HEIMDAI,.

The mythic ancient history of the human race and of
the Teutons may, in accordance with the analysis above

159

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

given, be divided into the following epochs : — (1) From
Ask and Bmbla's creation until Heimdal's arrival; (2)
from Heimdal's arrival until his departure; (3) the age
of Skjold-Borgar ; (4) Halfdan's time; (5) The time of
Halfdan's sons.

And now we will discuss the events of the last three
epochs.

In the days of Borgar the moral condition of men
grows worse, and an event in nature takes place threaten-
ing at least the northern part of the Teutonic world with
destruction. The myth gives the causes of both these
phenomena.

The moral degradation has its cause, if not wholly,
yet for the greater part, in the activity among men of a
female being from the giant world. Through her men
become acquainted with the black art, the evil art of
sorcery, which is the opposite of the wisdom drawn from
Mimer's holy fountain, the knowledge of runes, and
acquaintance with the application of nature's secret forces
for good ends (see Nos. 34, 35).

The sacred knowledge of runes, the "fimbul-songs,"
the white art, was, according to the myth, originally in
the possession of Mimer. Still he did not have it of him-
self, but got it from the subterranean fountain, which
he guarded beneath the middle root of the world-tree (see
No. 63) — a fountain whose veins, together with the
deepest root of the world-tree, extends to a depth which
not even Odin's thought can penerate (Havam., 138).
By self-sacrifice in his youth Odin received from Bestla's
brother (Mimer; see No. 88) a drink from the precious

160

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

liquor of this fountain and nine fimbul-songs (Havam.,
140; cp. Sigrdr., 14), which were the basis of the divine
magic of the application of the power of the word and of
the rune over spiritual and natural forces, in prayer, in
sacrifices and in other religious acts, in investigations, in
the practical affairs of life, in peace and in war (Havam.,
144 ff. ; Sigrdr., 6 ff.). The character and purpose of
these songs are clear from the fact that at the head is
placed "help's fimbul-song," which is able to allay sorrow
and cure diseases (Havam., 146).

In the hands of Odin they are a means for the protection
of the power of the Asa-gods, and enable them to assist
their worshippers in danger and distress. To these be-
long the fimbul-song of the runes of victory; and it is of
no little interest that we, in Havamal, 156, find what Tac-
itus tells about the barditus of the Germans, the shield-
song with which they went to meet their foes — a song
which Ammianus Paulus himself has heard, and of which
he gives a vivid description. When the Teutonic forces
advanced to battle the warriors raised their shields up to
a level with the upper lip, so that the round of the shield
formed a sort of sounding-board for their song. This
began in a low voice and preserved its subdued colour,
but the sound gradually increased, and at a distance it re-
sembled the roar of the breakers of the sea. Tacitus says
that the Teutons predicted the result of the battle from
the impression the song as a whole made upon themselves :
it might sound in their ears in such a manner that they
thereby became more terrible to their enemies, or in such
a manner that they were overcome by despair. The

161

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

above-mentioned strophe of Havamal gives us an expla-
nation of this : the warriors were roused to confidence if
they, in the harmony of the subdued song increasing in
volume, seemed to perceive Valfather's voice blended with
their own. The strophe makes Odin say : Hf ec seal til
orrostu leitha langvini, undir randir ec gel, en their meth
riki fara heilir hildar til, heilir hildi frd — "If I am to lead
those to battle whom I have long held in friendship, then
I sing under their shields. With success they go to the
conflict, and successfully they go out of it." Voluspa
also refers to the shield-song in 47, where it makes the
storm-giant, Hrymr, advancing against the gods, "lift
his shield before him" (hefis lind fyrir), an expression
which certainly has another significance than that of un-
necessarily pointing out that he has a shield for protection.
The runes of victory were able to arrest weapons in their
flight and to make those whom Odin loved proof against
sword-edge and safe against ambush (Havam., 148, 150).
Certain kinds of runes were regarded as producing vic-
tory and were carved on the hilt and on the blade of the
sword, and while they were carved Tyr's name was
twice named (Sigrdr., 6).

Another class of runes (brimrunar, Sigrdr., 10;
Havam., 150) controlled the elements, purified the air
from evil beings (Havm., 155), gave power over wind
and waves for good purposes — as, for instance, when
sailors in distress were to be rescued — or power over the
flames when they threatened to destroy human dwellings
(Havam., 152). A third kind of runes (mdlrunar)
gave speech to the mute and speechless, even to those

162

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

whose lips were sealed in death (see No. 70). A fourth
kind of runes could free the limbs from bonds (Havam.,
149). A fifth kind of runes protected against witch-
craft (Havam., 151). A sixth kind of runes (olrunar)
takes the strength from the love-potion prepared by an-
other man's wife, and from every treachery mingled
therein (Sigrdr., 7, 8). A seventh kind (bfargrunar
and limrunar) helps in childbirth and heals wounds. An
eighth kind gives wisdom and knowledge (hugrunar,
Sigrdr., 13; cp. Havam., 159). A ninth kind extin-
guishes enmity and hate, and produces friendship and
love (Havam., 153, 161). Of great value, and a great
honour to kings and chiefs, was the possession of heal-
ing runes and healing hands ; and that certain noble-born
families inherited the power of these runes was a belief
which has been handed down even to our time. There is
a distinct consciousness that the runes of this kind were
a gift of the blithe gods. In a strophe, which sounds as
if it were taken from an ancient hymn, the gods are be-
seeched for runes of wisdom and healing: "Hail to the
gods! Hail to the goddesses! Hail to the bounteous
Earth (the goddess Jord). Words and wisdom give
unto us, and healing hands while we live!" (Sigrdr., 4).
In ancient times arrangements were made for spread-
ing the knowledge of the good runes among all kinds of
beings. Odin taught them to his own clan ; Dainn taught
them to the Elves; Dvalinn among the dwarfs; Asvinr
(see No. 88) among the giants (Havam., 143). Even
the last-named became participators in the good gift,
which, mixed with sacred mead, was sent far and wide,

163

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and it has since been among the Asas, among the Elves,
among the wise Vans, and among the children of men
(Sigrdr., 18). The above-named Dvalinn, who taught
the runes to his clan of ancient artists, is the father of
daughters, who, together with discs of Asa and Vana
birth, are in possession of b/argrunar, and employ them
in the service of man (Fafnism., 13).

To men the beneficent runes came through the same
god who as a child came with the sheaf of grain and the
tools to Scandia. Hence the belief current among the
Franks and Saxons that the alphabet of the Teutons,
like the Teutons themselves, was of northern origin.
Rigsthula expressly presents Heimdal as teaching runes
to the people whom he blessed by his arrival in Midgard.
The noble-born are particularly his pupils in runic lore.
Of Heimdal's grandson, the son of Jarl Borgar, named
Kon-Halfdan, it is said :

En Konr ungr But Kon the young

kunni runar, taught himself runes,

sefinrunar runes of eternity

ok alldrrunar. and runes of earthly life.

Meir kunni hann Then he taught himself

monnum bjarga, men to save,

eggjar deyfa, the sword-edge to deaden,

aegi legia, the sea to quiet,

klok nam fugla, bird-song to interpret,

kyrra ellda, fires to extinguish,

saeva ok svefia, to soothe and comfort,

sorgir Isegia. sorrows to allay.

The fundamental character of this rune-lore bears dis-
tinctly the stamp of nobility. The runes of eternity
united with those of the earthly life can scarcely have any

164

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

other reference than to the heathen doctrines concerning
religion and morality. These were looked upon as be-
ing for all time, and of equal importance to the life here-
after. Together with physical runes with magic power
— that is, runes that gave their possessors power over the
hostile forces of nature — we find runes intended to serve
the cause of sympathy and mercy.

27.

SORCERY THE REVERSE OF THE SACRED RUNES. GUW,-
VEIG-HEIDR, THE SOURCE OF SORCERY. THE MORAI,
DETERIORATION OF THE ORIGINAL MAN.

But already in the beginning of time evil powers ap-
pear for the purpose of opposing and ruining the good
influences from the world of gods upon mankind. Just
as Heimdal, "the fast traveller," proceeds from house to
house, forming new ties in society and giving instruction
in what is good and useful, thus we soon find a messen-
ger of evil wandering about between the houses in Mid-
gard, practising the black art and stimulating the worst
passions of the human soul. The messenger comes from
the powers of frost, the enemies of creation. It is a
giantess, the daughter of the giant Hrimnir (Hyndlulj.,
32), known among the gods as Gulveig and by other
names (see Nos. 34, 35), but on her wanderings on earth
called Heidr. "Heid they called her (Gulveig) when
she came to the children of men, the crafty, prophesyjng
vala, who practised sorcery (mtti ganda}, practised the
evil art, caused by witchcraft misfortunes, sickness, and

165

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

death (leikin, see No. 67), and was always sought by bad
women." Thus Voluspa describes her. The important
position Heid occupies in regard to the corruption of
ancient man, and the consequences of her appearance for
the gods, for man, and for nature (see below), have led
Voluspa's author, in spite of his general poverty of words,
to describe her with a certain fulness, pointing out among
other things that she was the cause of the first war in
the world. That the time of her appearance was during
the life of Borgar and his son shall be demonstrated
below.

In connection with this moral corruption, and caused
by the same powers hostile to the world, there occur in
this epoch such disturbances in nature that the original
home of man and culture — nay, all Midgard — is threat-
ened with destruction on account of long, terrible win-
ters. A series of connected myths tell of this. Ancient
artists — forces at work in the growth of nature — personi-
fications of the same kind as Rigveda's Ribhus, that had
before worked in harmony with the gods, become, through
the influence of Loke, foes of Asgard, their work be-
coming as harmful as it before was beneficent, and seek
to destroy what Odin had created (see Nos. Ill and 112).
Idun, with her life-renewing apples, is carried by Thjasse
away from Asgard to the northernmost wilderness of the
world, and is there concealed. Freyja, the goddess of
fertility, is robbed and falls into the power of giants.
Frey, the god of harvests, falls sick. The giant king
Snow and his kinsmen Thorri (Black Frost), Jokull (the
Glacier), &c., extend their sceptres over Scandia.

166

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Already during Heimdal's reign, after his protege
Borgar had grown up, something happens which fore-
bodes these terrible times, but still has a happy issue.

28A.

AND THE SUN-DIS (Dis-goddess).

In Saxo's time there was still extant a myth telling how
Heimdal, as the ruler of the earliest generation, got him-
self a wife. The myth is found related as history in
Historia Danica, pp. 335-337. Changed into a song of
chivalry in middle age style, we find it on German soil in
the poem concerning king Ruther.

Saxo relates that a certain king Alf undertook a peril-
ous journey of courtship, and was accompanied by Bor-
gar. Alf is the more noble of the two; Borgar attends
him. This already points to the fact that the mythic
figure which Saxo has changed into a historical king must
be Heimdal, Borgar's co-father, his ruler and fosterer,
otherwise Borgar himself would be the chief person in
his country, and could not be regarded as subject to any-
one else. Alf's identity with Heimdal is corroborated by
"King Ruther," and to a degree also by the description
Saxo makes of his appearance, a description based on a
definite mythic prototype. Alf, says Saxo, had a fine
exterior, and over his hair, though he was young, a so
remarkably white splendour was diffused that rays of
light seemed to issue from his silvery locks (cufus etiam

167

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

insignem candore c&sa/riem tantus comce decor asperierat,
ut argenteo crine nitere putaretur} . The Heimdal of the
myth is a god of light, and is described by the colour ap-
plied to pure silver in the old Norse literature to distin-
guish it from that which is alloyed; he is hviti ds$
(Gylfag., 27) and hmtastr dsa (Thrymskvida, 5) ; his
teeth glitter like gold, and so does his horse. We should
expect that the maid whom Alf, if he is Heimdal, desires
to possess belongs like himself to the divinities of light.
Saxo also says that her beauty could make one blind if
she was seen without her veil, and her name Alfhild be-
longs, like Alfsol, Hild, Alfhild Solglands, Svanhild
Guldfjaeder, to that class of names by which the sun-
dises, mother and daughter, were transferred from my-
thology to history. She is watched by two1 dragons.
Suitors who approach her in vain get their heads chopped
off and set up on poles (thus also in "King Ruther").
Alf conquers the guarding dragons ; but at the advice of
her mother Alfhild takes flight, puts on a man's clothes
and armour, and becomes a female warrior, fighting at
the head of other Amazons. Alf and Borgar search for
and find the troop of Amazons amid ice and snow. It
is conquered and flies to "Finnia," Alf and Borgar
pursue them thither. There is a new conflict. Borgar
strikes the helmet from Alfhild's head. She has to con-
fess herself conquered, and becomes Alf's wife.

In interpreting the mythic contents of this story we
must remember that the lad who came with the sheaf of
grain to Scandia needed the help of the sun for the seed
which he brought with him to sprout, before it could give

1 68

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

harvests to the inhabitants. But the saga also indicates
that the sun-dis had veiled herself, and made herself as
far as possible unapproachable, and that when Heimdal
had forced himself into her presence she fled to northern
ice-enveloped regions, where the god and his foster-son,
sword in hand, had to fetch her, whereupon a happy mar-
riage between him and the sun-dis secures good weather
and rich harvests to the land over which he rules. At
the first glance it might seem as if this myth had left no
trace in our Icelandic records. This is, however, not
the case. Its fundamental idea, that the sun at one time
in the earliest ages went astray from southern regions
to the farthest north and desired to remain there, but that
it was brought back by the might of the gods wyho created
the world, and through them received, in the same man-
ner as Day and Night, its course defined and regularly
established, we find in the Voluspa strophe, examined
with so great acumen by Julius Hoffory, which speaks of
a bewilderment of this kind on the part of the sun, occur-
ring before it yet "knew its proper sphere," and in the
following strophe, which tells how the all-holy gods there-
upon held solemn council and so ordained the activity of
these beings, that time can be divided and years be re-
corded by their course. Nor is the marriage into which
the sun-dis entered forgotten. Skaldskaparmal quotes a
strophe from Skule Thorsteinson where Sol* is called
Glenr's wife. That he whom the skald characterises by
this epithet is a god is a matter of course. Glenr signi-
fies "the shining one," and this epithet was badly chosen

*Sol is feminine in the Teutonic tongues. — TB.
12 169

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

if it did not refer to "the most shining of the Asas,"
hvitastr dsa — that is, Heimdal.

The fundamental traits of "King Ruther" resemble
Saxo's story. There, too, it is a king who undertakes a
perilous journey of courtship and must fight several bat-
tles to win the wondrous fair maiden whose previous suit-
ors had had to pay for their eagerness by having their
heads chopped off and fastened on poles. The king is
accompanied by Berter, identical with Berchtung-Borgar,
but here, as always in the German story, described as the
patriarch and adviser. A giant, Vidolt — Saxo's Vitol-
phus, Hyndluljod's Vidolfr — accompanies Ruther and1
Berter on the journey; and when Vitolphus in Saxo is
mentioned under circumstances which show that he ac-
companied Borgar on a warlike expedition, and thereupon
saved his son Halfdan's life, there is no room for doubt
that Saxo's saga and "King Ruther" originally flowed
from the same mythic source. It can also be demon-
strated that the very name Ruther is one of those epithets
which belong to Heimdal. The Norse Hrutr is, accord-
ing to the Younger Edda (i. 588, 589), a synonym of
Heimdali, and Heimdali is another form of Heimdali
(Isl., i. 231). As Hrutr means a ram, and as Heimdali
is an epithet of a ram (see Younger Edda, i. 589), light
is thrown upon the bold metaphors, according to which
"head," "Heimdal's head," and "Heimdal's sword" are
synonyms (Younger Edda, i. 100, 264; ii. 499). The
ram's head carries and is the ram's sword. Of the age
of this animal symbol we give an account in No. 82.
There is reason for believing that Heimdal's helmet has

170

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

been conceived as decorated with ram's horns.* A
strophe quoted in the Younger Edda (i. 608) mentions
Heimdal's helmet, and calls the sword the fyllr of Heim-
dal's helmet, an ambiguous expression, which may be in-
terpreted as that which fills Heimdal's helmet; that is to
say, Heimdal's head, but also as that which has its place
on the helmet. Compare the expression fyllr hilmis stols
as a metaphor for the power of the ruler.

28B.

LOKE CAUSES ENMITY BETWEEN THE GODS AND THE
ORIGINAL ARTISTS (THE CREATORS OP AU, THINGS

GROWING). THE CONSEQUENCE is THE EIMBUI,-

WINTER AND EMIGRATIONS.

The danger averted by Heimdal when he secured the
sun-dis with bonds of love begins in the time of Borgar.
The corruption of nature and of man go hand in hand.
Borgar has to contend with robbers (pugiles and pirata),
and among them the prototype of pirates — that terrible
character, remembered also in Icelandic poetry, called
Rodi (Saxo, Hist., 23, 345). The moderate laws given
by Heimdal had to be made more severe by Borgar
(Hist., 24, 25).

While the moral condition in Midgard grows worse,
Loke carries out in Asgard a cunningly-conceived plan,
which seems to be to the advantage of the gods, but is

*That some one of the gods has worn a helmet with such a crown can
be seen on one of the golden horns found near Gallehuus. There twice
occurs a being wearing a helmet furnished with long, curved, sharp pointed
horns. Near him a ram is drawn and in his hand he has something re-
sembling a staff which ends in a circle, and possibly is intended to repre-
sent Heimdal's horn.

171

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

intended to bring about the ruin of both the gods and man.
His purpose is to cause enmity between the original ar-
tists themselves and between them and the gods.

Among these artists the sons of Ivalde constitute a
separate group. Originally they enjoyed the best rela-
tions to the gods, and gave them the best products of their
wonderful art, for ornament and for use. Odin's spear
Gungnir, the golden locks on Sif's head, and Prey's cele-
brated ship Skidbladner, which could hold all the warriors
of Asgard and always had favourable wind, but which
also could be folded as a napkin and be carried in one's
pocket (Gylfaginning), had all come from the workshop
of these artists.

Ivalda synir The sons of Ivalde

gengu i ardaga went in ancient times

Scidbladni at skapa, to make Skidbladner,

scipa bezt, among ships the best,

scirom Frey, for the shining Frey,

nytom Njardar bur. Njord's useful son.

(Grimnismal.)

Another group of original artists were Sindre and his
kinsmen, who dwelt on Nida's plains in the happy domain
of the lower world (Volusp., Nos. 93, 94). According
to the account given in Gylfaginning, ch. 37, Loke meets
Sindre's brother Brok, and wagers his head that Sindre
cannot make treasures as good as the above-named gifts
from Ivalde's sons to the Asas. Sindre then made in his
smithy the golden boar for Frey, the ring Draupner for
Odin, from which eight gold rings of equal weight drop
every ninth night, and the incomparable hammer Mjolner
for Thor. When the treasures were finished, Loke cun-

172

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ningly gets the gods to assemble for the purpose of de-
ciding whether or not he has forfeited his head. The
gods cannot, of course, decide this without at the same
time passing judgment on the gifts of Sindre and those
of Ivalde's sons, and showing that one group of artists
is inferior to the other. And this is done. Sindre's
treasures are preferred, and thus the sons of Ivalde are
declared to be inferior in comparison. But at the same
time Sindre fails, through the decision of the gods, to get
the prize agreed on. Both groups of artists are offended
by the decision.

Gylfaginning does not inform us whether the sons of
Ivalde accepted the decision with satisfaction or anger, or
whether any noteworthy consequences followed or not.
An entirely similar judgment is mentioned in Rigveda
(see No. 111). The judgment there has the most im-
portant consequences : hatred toward the artists who were
victorious, and toward the gods who were the judges,
takes possession of the ancient artist who was defeated,
and nature is afflicted with great suffering. That the
Teutonic mythology has described similar results of the
decision shall be demonstrated in this work.

Just as in the names Alveig and Almveig, Bil-rost and
Bif-rost, Arinbjorn and Grjdfbjorn, so also in the name
Ivaldi or Ivaldr, the latter part of the word forms the
permanent part, corresponding to the Old English Val-
dere, the German Walther, the Latinised Waltharius.*

*Elsewhere it shall be shown that the heroes mentioned in the middle
age poetry under the names Valdere, Walther, Waltharius manufortis, and
Valthere of Vaskasten are all variations of the name of the same mythic
type changed into a human hero, and the same, too, as Ivalde of the Norse
documents (see No. 123).

173

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The former part of the word may change without any
change as to the person indicated: Ivaldi, Allvaldi,
Olvaldi, Audvaldi, may be names of one and the same
person. Of these variations Ivaldi and Allvaldi are
in their sense most closely related, for the prefix
I (Id} and All may interchange in the language without
the least change in the meaning. Compare all-likr, ilikr,
and idglikr; all-litill and ilitill; all-nog, ignog
and idgnog. On the other hand, the prefixes in Olvaldi
and Audvaldi produce different meanings of the com-
pound word. But the records give most satisfactory evi-
dence that Olvaldi and Audvaldi nevertheless are the same
person as Allvaldi (Ivaldi). Thjasse's father is called
in Harbardsljod (19) Allvaldi; in the Younger Edda
(i. 214) Olvaldi and Audvaldi. He has three sons, Ide,
Gang, also called Urner (the Grotte-song) , and the just-
named Thjasse, who are the famous ancient artists, "the
sons of Ivalde" (Ivalda synir). We here point this out in
passing. Complete statement and proof of this fact, so
important from a mythological standpoint, will be given
in Nos. 113, 114, 115.

Nor is it long before it becomes apparent what the
consequences are of the decision pronounced by the Asas
on Loke's advice upon the treasures presented to the
gods. The sons of Ivalde regarded it as a mortal offence,
born of the ingratitude of the gods. Loke, the origina-
tor of the scheme, is caught in the snares laid by Thjasse
in a manner fully described in Thjodolf's poem "Haust-
laung," and to regain his liberty he is obliged to assist
him (Thjasse) in carrying Idun away from Asgard.

174

r~T

HJ'\SSK v

GIANT THJASSE, IN THE GUISE OF AN EAGLE,
IRIES OFF LOKE.

as the storm-giant who hiving boon

-.olden -\.[,
'lie ooca

i I dun and h

.^tilled Idun out of
iie form

to his castle. Thrym-
j

!>orn in deform

i .< 'ke and vlien th.

,. :' ,ut!

lo release

Asgar'd \\1irrenpo?:
goddf-;s in hi? rain

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

: :i of the wo: :out any

^e as to the person indk .-lllvaldi,

'di, Audvaldi, may be names of :.he same

person. Of these variations I are

in their sense most closely related, prefix

I (Id) and All may interchange in the I 'iout

the least change in the meaning. Compare iikr,

and idglikr; all-litill and ilitill; all-nog, ignog

and e other hand, the prefixes in Olvaldi

-iiffQtfiPt jneanin^s of the com-
i ,a~ • —

..22AfHT TMAIO

•fcgj^gjmst satisfacton' evi-

less are the same
father i

S. 19

i -•>.*.

b»fcWl?it 'to'Wft-!^ - •'•rtfr>tth»'
ences are of the decision pronounced by m^cA'^as
advice upon the treasures presented to the
sons of Ivalde regarded it as a mortal offence,
ingratitude of the gods. Loke, the origina-
ie, is caught in the snares laid by
:!y described in Thjodolf <ust-

•iin his liberty he i?

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Idun, who possesses "the Asas' remedy against old age,"
and keeps the apples which symbolise the ever-renewing
and rejuvenating force of nature, is carried away by
Thjasse to a part of the world inaccessible to the gods.
The gods grow old, and winter extends its power more
and more beyond the limits prescribed for it in creation.
Thjasse, who before was the friend of the gods, is now
their irreconcilable foe. He who was the promoter of
growth and the benefactor of nature — for Sif's golden
locks, and Skidbladner, belonging to the god of fertility,
doubtless are symbols thereof — is changed into "the
mightiest foe of earth," dolg ballastan vallar (Haustl.,
6), and has wholly assumed the nature of a giant.

At the same time, with the approach of the great win-
ter, a terrible earthquake takes place, the effects of which
are felt even in heaven. The myth in regard to this is
explained in No. 81. In this explanation the reader will
find that the great earthquake in primeval time is caused
by Thjasse's kinswomen on his mother's side (the Grotte-
song) — that is, by the giantesses Fenja and Menja, who
turned the enormous world-mill, built on the foundations
of the lower world, and working in the depths of the sea,
the prototype of the mill of the Grotte-song composed in
Christian times; that the world-mill has a mondull, the
mill-handle, which sweeps the uttermost rim of the earth,
with which handle not only the mill-stone but also the
starry heavens are made to whirl round; and that when
the mill was put in so violent a motion by the angry
giantesses that it got out of order, then the starry constel-
lations were also disturbed. The ancient terrible winter

175

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and the inclination of the axis of heaven have in the myth
been connected, and these again with the close of the
golden age. The mill had up to this time ground gold,
happiness, peace, and good-will among men; henceforth
it grinds salt and dust.

The winter must of course first of. all affect those people
who inhabited the extensive Svithiod north of the original
country and over which another kinsman of Heimdal, the
first of the race of Skilfings or Ynglings, ruled. This
kinsman of Heimdal has an important part in the mythol-
ogy, and thereof we shall give an account in Nos. 89, 91,
110, 113-115, and 123. It is there found that he is the
same as Ivalde, who, with a giantess, begot the illegiti-
mate children Ide, Urner, and Thjasse. Already before
his sons he became the foe of the gods, and from Svithiod
now proceeds, in connection with the spreading of the
fimbul-winter, a migration southward, the work at the
same time of the Skilfings and the primeval artists. The
list of dwarfs in Voluspa has preserved the record of this
in the strophe about the artist migration from the rocks
of the hall (Salar steinar) and from Svarin's mound sit-
uated in the north (the Voluspa strophe quoted in the
Younger Edda ; cp. Saxo., Hist., 32, 33, and Helg. Hund.,
i. 31, ii. to str. 14). The attack is directed against aur-
vanga sjot, the land of the clayey plains, and the assail-
ants do not stop before they reach Joruzvlla the Jara
plains, which name is still applied to the south coast of
Scandinavia (see No. 32). In the pedigree of these emi-
grants—

176

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

their er sottu

fra Salar steina (or Svarins haugi)

aurvanga sjot

til Joruvalla —

occur the names Alfr and Yngvi, whohaveSkilfingnames;
Fjalarr, who is Ivalde's ally and Odin's enemy (see No.
89) ; Finnr, which is one of the several names of Ivalde
himself (see No. 123); Frosti, who symbolises cold;
Skirfir, a name which points to the Skilfings ; and Virfir,
whom Saxo (Hist. Dan., 178, 179) speaks of as Huyr-
villiis, and the Icelandic records as Viruill and Vifill
(Fornalders. ii. 8; Younger Edda, i. 548). In Forn-
alders. Vifill is an emigration leader who married to
Loge's daughter Eymyrja (a metaphor for fire — Younger
Edda, ii. 570), betakes himself from the far North and
takes possession of an island on the Swedish coast. That
this island is Oland is clear from Saxo, 178, where
Huyrvillus is called Holandwz princeps. At the same
time a brother-in-law of Virfir takes possession of Born-
holm, and Gotland is colonised by Thjelvar (Thjdlfi of
the myth), who is the son of Thjasse's brother (see Nos.
113, 114, 115). Virfir is allied with the sons of Finnr
(Fyn — Saxo, Hist., 178). The saga concerning the
emigration of the Longobardians is also connected with
the myth about Thjasse and his kinsmen (see Nos. 112-
115).

From all this it appears that a series of emigration and
colonisation tales have their origin in the myth concerning
the fimbul-winter caused by Thjasse and concerning the
therewith connected attack by the Skilfings and Thjasse's
kinsmen on South Scandinavia, that is, on the clayey

177

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

plains near Jaravall, where the second son of Heimdal,
Skjold-Borgar, rules. It is the remembrance of this migra-
tion from north to south which forms the basis of all the
Teutonic middle-age migration sagas. The migration saga
of the Goths, as Jordanes heard it, makes them emigrate
from Scandinavia under the leadership of Berig. (Bx hoc
igitur Scandza instula quasi officina gentium aut certe velut
•vagina nationum cum rege suo Berig Gothi quondam
memorantur egressi — De Goth. Orig., c. 4. Meminisse debes,
me de Scandza insulcz gremio Gothos dixisse egressos cum
Berich suo rege — c. 17.) The name Berig, also written
Berich and Berigo, is the same as the German Berker,
Berchtung, and indicates the same person as the Norse
Borgarr. With Berig is connected the race of the Ama-
lians; with Borgar the memory of Hamal (Amala), who
is the foster-brother of Borgar's son (cp. No. 28 with
Helge Hund., ii.). Thus the emigration of the Goths
is in the myth a result of the fate experienced by Borgar
and his people in their original country. And as the
Swedes constituted the northernmost Teutonic branch,
they were the ones who, on the approach of the fimbul-
winter, were the first that were compelled to surrender
their abodes and secure more southern habitations. This
also appears from saga fragments which have been pre-
served ; and here, but not in the circumstances themselves,
lies the explanation of the statements, according to which
the Swedes forced Scandinavian tribes dwelling farther
south to emigrate. Jordanes (c. 3) claims that the
Herulians were driven from their abode in Scandza by
the Svithidians, and that the Danes are of Svithidian

178

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

origin — in other words, that an older Teutonic population
in Denmark was driven south, and that Denmark was
repeopled by emigrants from Sweden. And in the Norse
sagas themselves, the centre of gravity, as we have seen,
is continually being moved farther to the south. Heim-
dal, under the name Scef-Skelfir, comes to the original
inhabitants in Scania. Borgar, his son, becomes a ruler
there, but founds, under the name Skjold, the royal
dynasty of the Skjoldungs in Denmark. With Scef and
Skjold the Wessex royal family of Saxon origin is in
turn connected, and thus the royal dynasty of the Goths
is again connected with the Skjold who emigrated from
Scandza, and who is identical with Borgar. And finally
there existed in Saxo's time mythic traditions or songs
which related that all the present Germany came under the
power of the Teutons who emigrated with Borgar; that,
in other words, the emigration from the North carried
with it the hegemony of Teutonic tribes over other tribes
which before them inhabited Germany. Saxo says of
Skjold-Borgar that omnem Alamannorum gentem tribu-
taria ditione perdomuit; that is, "he made the whole race
of Alamanni tributary." The name Alamanni is in this
case not to be taken in an ethnographical but in a geogra-
phical sense. It means the people who were rulers in
Germany before the immigration of Teutons from the
North.

From this we see that migration traditions remembered
by Teutons beneath Italian and Icelandic skies, on the
islands of Great Britain and on the German continent, in
spite of their wide diffusion and their separation in time,

179

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

point to a single root : to the myth concerning the prime-
val artists and their conflict with the gods ; to the robbing
of Idun and the fimbul-winter which was the result.

The myth makes the gods themselves to be seized by
terror at the fate of the world, and Mimer makes arrange-
ments to save all that is best and purest on earth for an
expected regeneration of the world. At the very begin-
ning of the fimbul-winter Mimer opens in his subterranean
grove of immortality an asylum, closed against all physi-
cal and spiritual evil, for the two children of men, Lif and
Lifthrasir (Vafthr., 45), who are to be the parents of a
new race of men (see Nos. 52, 53).

The war begun in Borgar's time for the possession of
the ancient country continues under his son Halfdan, who
reconquers it for a time, invades Svithiod, and repels
Thjasse and his kinsmen (see Nos. 32, 33).

29.

EVIDENCE THAT HALFDAN IS IDENTICAL WITH HELGE
HUNDINGSBANE.

The main outlines of Halfdan's saga reappears related
as history, and more or less blended with foreign
elements, in Saxo's accounts of the kings Gram, Halfdan
Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson (see No. 23). Con-
tributions to the saga are found in Hyndluljod (str. 14,
15, 16) and in Skaldskaparmal (Younger Edda, i. 516
ff.), in what they tell about Halfdan Skjoldung and Half-
dan the Old. The juvenile adventures of the hero have,
with some modifications, furnished the materials for both

180

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the songs about Helge Hundingsbane, with which Saxo's
story of Helgo Hundingicida (Hist., 80-110) and Vol-
sungasaga's about Helge Sigmundson are to be com-
pared. The Grotte-song also (str. 22) identifies Helge
Hundingsbane with Halfdan.

For the history of the origin of the existing heroic
poems from mythic sources, of their relation to these and
to each other, it is important to get the original identity
of the hero-myth, concerning Halfdan and the heroic
poems concerning Helge Hundingsbane, fixed on a firm
foundation. The following parallels suffice to show that
this Helge is a later time's reproduction of the mythic
Halfdan :

Halfdan-Gram, sent on a
warlike expedition, meets
Groa, who is mounted on
horseback and accompanied
by other women on horse-
back (Saxo, 26, 27).

The meeting takes place in
a forest (Saxo, 26).

Halfdan-Gram is on the
occasion completely wrapped
in the skin of a wild beast, so
that even his face is con-
cealed (Saxo, 26).

Conversation is begun be-
tween Halfdan-Gram and
Groa. Halfdan pretends to be

Helge Hundingsbane, sent
on a warlike expedition,
meets Sigrun,who is mounted
on horseback and is ac-
companied by other women
on horseback (Helge Hund.,
i. 16; Volsunga-saga, c. 9).

The meeting takes place in
a forest (Vols., c. 9).

Helge is on the occasion
disguised. He speaks fra
ulfidi "from a wolf guise"
(Helge Hund., i. 16), which
expression finds its interpre-
tation in Saxo, where Half-
dan appears wrapped in the
skin of a wild beast.

Conversation is begun be-
tween Helge and Sigrun.
Helge pretends to be a per-

181

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

a person who is his brother-
at-arms (Saxo, 27).

Groa asks Half dan-Gram:
Quis, rogo, vestrum
dirigit agmen,
quo duce signa
bellica fertis?

(Saxo, 27.)

Halfdan-Gram invites Groa
to accompany him. At first
the invitation is refused
(Saxo, 27).

Groa's father had already
given her hand to another
(Saxo, 26).

Halfdan - Gram explains
that this rival ought not to
cause them to fear (Saxo, 28).

Halfdan-Gram makes war
on Groa's father, on his rival,
and on the kinsmen of the lat-
ter (Saxo, 32).

Halfdan-Gram slays Groa's
father and betrothed, and
many heroes who belonged to
his circle of kinsmen or were
subject to him (Saxo, 32).

Halfdan-Gram marries Groa
(Saxo, 33).

Halfdan-Gram conquers a
king Ring (Saxo, 32).

Borgar's son has defeated
and slain king Hunding
(Saxo, 362; cp. Saxo, 337).

son who is his foster-brother
(Helge Hund., ii. 6).

Sigrun asks Helge:
Hverir lata fljota
fley vid backa,
hvar hermegir
heima eigud?

(Helge Hund., ii. 5.)

Helge invites Sigrun to ac-
company him. At first the in-
vitation is rebuked (Helge
Hund., i. 16, 17).

Sigrun's father had already
promised her to another
(Helge Hund., i. 18).

Helge explains that this
rival should not cause them to
fear (Helge Hund., i., ii.).

Helge makes war on Sig-
run's father, on his rival, and
on the kinsmen of the latter
(Helge Hund., i., ii.).

Helge kills Sigrun's father
and suitors, and many heroes
who were the brothers or
allies of his rival (Helge
Hund., ii.).

Helge marries Sigrun (Hel-
ge Hund., i. 56).

Helge conquers Ring's sons
(Helge Hund., i. 52).

Helge has slain king Hun-
ding, and thus gotten the
name Hundingsbane (Helge
Hund., i. 10).

182

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Halfdan-Gram has felled
Svarin and many of his broth-
ers. Svarin was viceroy un-
der Groa's father (Saxo, 32).

Halfdan-Gram is slain by
Svipdag, who is armed with
an Asgard weapon (Saxo, 34,
to be compared with other
sources. See Nos. 33, 98, 101,
103).

Halfdan-Berggram's father
is slain by his brother Frode,
who took his kingdom (Saxo,
320).

Halfdan Berggram and his
brother were in their child-
hood protected by Regno
(Saxo, 320).

Halfdan Berggram and his
brother burnt Frode to death
in his house (Saxo, 323).

Halfdan Berggram as a
youth left the kingdom to his
brother and went warfaring
(Saxo, 320 ff).

During Halfdan's absence
Denmark is attacked by an
enemy, who conquers his
brother in three battles and
slays him in a fourth (Saxo,
325).

Halfdan, the descendant of
Scef and Scyld, becomes the
father of Rolf (Beowulf
poem).

Helge's rival and the many
brothers of the latter dwell
around Svarin's grave-mound.
They are allies or subjects of
Sigrun's father.

Helge is slain by Dag, who
is armed with an Asgard
weapon (Helge Hund., ii.).

Helge's father was slain by
his brother Frode, who took
his kingdom (Rolf Krake's
saga).

Helge and his brother were
in their childhood protected
by Regin (Rolf Krake's saga).

Helge and his brothers
burnt Frode to death in his
house (Rolf Krake's saga).

Helge Hundingsbane as a
youth left the kingdom to his
brother and went warfaring
(Saxo, 80).

During Helge Hundings-
bane's absence Denmark is at-
tacked by an enemy, who con-
quers his brother in three
battles and slays him in a
fourth (Saxo, 82).

Helge Hundingsbane be-
came the father of Rolf
(Saxo, 83; compare Rolf
Krake's saga).

183

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Halfdan had a son with his Helge Hundingsbane had a

own sister Yrsa (Grotte-song, son with his own sister Ursa

22; mon Yrsu sonr vid Half- (Saxo, 82). The son was Rolf

dana hefna Froda; sa mun (compare Rolf Krake's saga),
hennar heitinn vertha bosr oc
brothir).

A glance at these parallels is sufficient to remove every
doubt that the hero in the songs concerning Helge Hund-
ingsbane is originally the same mythic person as is cele-
brated in the song or songs from which Saxo gathered
his materials concerning the kings, Gram Skjoldson, Half-
dan Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson. It is the
ancient myth in regard to Halfdan, the son of Skjold-
Borgar, which myth, after the introduction of Christianity
in Scandinavia, is divided into two branches, of which the
one continues to be the saga of this patriarch, while the
other utilises the history of his youth and tranforms it
into a new saga, that of Helge Hundingsbane. In Saxo's
time, and long before him, this division into two branches
had already taken place. How this younger branch,
Helge Hundingsbane's saga, was afterwards partly appro-
priated by the all-absorbing Sigurdsaga and became con-
nected with it in an external and purely genealogical
manner, and partly did itself appropriate (as in Saxo)
the old Danish local tradition about Rolf, the illegitimate
son of Halfdan Skjoldung, and, in fact, foreign to his
pedigree; how it got mixed with the saga about an evil
Frode and his stepsons, a saga with which it formerly had
no connection; — all these are questions which I shall
discuss fully in a second part of this work, and in a

184

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

separate treatise on the heroic sagas. For the present,
my task is to show what influence this knowledge of Half-
dan and Helge Hundingsbane's identity has upon the
interpretation of the myth concerning the antiquity of the
Teutons.

30.

HALFDAN'S BIRTH AND THE END OF THE AGE OE PEACE.
THE FAMILY NAMES YLFING, HILDING, BUDLUNG.

The first strophes of the first song of Helge Hundings-
bane distinguish themselves in tone and character and
broad treatment from the continuation of the song, and
have clearly belonged to a genuine old mythic poem about
Halfdan, and without much change the compiler of the
Helge Hundingsbane song has incorporated them into his
poem. They describe Half dan's ("Helge Hundings-
bane's") birth. The real mythic names of his parents,
Borgar and Drott, have been retained side by side with the
names given by the compiler, Sigmund and Borghild.

Ar var alda; It was time's morning,

that er arar gullo, eagles screeched,

hnigo heilog votn holy waters fell

af himinfjollum; from the heavenly mountains.

tha hafthi Helga Then was the mighty

inn hugom stora Helge born

Borghildr borit by Borghild

i Bralundi. in Bralund.

Nott varth i bee, It was night,

nornir qvomo, norns came,

ther er authlingi they who did shape

13 185

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

aldr um scopo;
thann batho fylci
fraegstan vertha
oc buthlunga
beztan ticcia.

Snero ther af afli

aurlaugthatto,

tha er Borgarr braut

i Bralundi;

ther um greiddo

gullin simo

oc und manasal

mithian festo.

ther austr oc vestr

enda falo:

thar atti lofdungr

land a milli;

bra nipt Nera

a nordrevega

einni festi

ey bath hon halda.

Eitt var at angri
Ylfinga nith

oc theirre meyio
er nunuth fseddi;
hrafn gvath at hrafni
— sat a ham meithi
andvanr ato: —
"Ec veit noccoth!

"Stendr i brynio
burr Sigmundar,
doegrs eins gamall,

the fate of the nobleman;
they proclaimed him
best among Budlungs,
and most famed
among princes.

With all their might the threads

of fate they twisted,

when Borgar settled

in Bralund;

of gold they made

the warp of the web.

and fastened it directly

'neath the halls of the moon.

In the east and west

they hid the ends:

there between

the chief should rule;

Nere's* kinswoman

northward sent

one thread and bade it

hold for ever.

One cause there was
of alarm to the Yngling (Bor-
gar),

and also for her
who bore the loved one.
Hungry cawed
raven to raven
in the high tree:
"Hear what I know!

"In coat of mail
stands Sigmund's son,
one day old,

*Urd, the chief goddess of fate. See the treatise "Mythen om Under-
jorden."

186

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

nu er dagr kominn;
hversir augo
sem hildingar,
sa er varga vinr,
vith scolom teitir."

Drott thotti sa
dauglingr vera
quado meth gumnom
god-ar kominn;
sialfr gecc visi
or vig thrimo
ungum fasra
itrlauc grami.

now the day is come;
sharp eyes of the Hildings
has he, and the wolves'
friend he becomes,
We shall thrive."

Drott, it is said, saw

In him a dayling,*

saying, "Now are good seasons

come among men;"

to the young lord

from thunder-strife

came the chief himself

with a glorious flower.

Half dan's ("Helge Hundingsbane's") birth occurs,
according to the contents of these strophes, when two
epochs meet. His arrival announces the close of the
peaceful epoch and the beginning of an age of strife, which
ever since has reigned in the world. His significance in
this respect is distinctly manifest in the poem. The
raven, to whom the battle-field will soon be as a wellspread
table, is yet suffering from hunger (andvanr atu) ; but
from the high tree in which it sits, it has on the day after
the birth of the child, presumably through the window,
seen the newcomer, and discovered that he possessed "the
sharp eyes of the Hildings," and with prophetic vision it
has already seen him clad in coat of mail. It proclaims
its discovery to another raven in the same tree, and fore-
tells that theirs and the age of the wolves has come : "We
shall thrive."

The parents of the child heard and understood what

*Daylmg = bright son of day or light.

I87

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the raven said. Among the runes which Heimdal, Bor-
gar's father, taught him, and which the son of the latter
in time learned, are the knowledge of bird-speech (Konr
ungr klok nam fugla — Rigsthula, 43, 44). The raven's
appearance in the song of Helge Hundingsbane is to be
compared with its relative the crow in Rigsthula ; the one
foretells that the new-born one's path of life lies over
battle-fields, the other urges the grown man to turn away
from his peaceful amusements. Important in regard to
a correct understanding of the song, and characteristic of
the original relation of the strophes quoted to the myth
concerning primeval time, is the circumstance that Half-
dan's ("Helge Hundingsbane's") parents are not pleased
with the prophecies of the raven ; on the contrary they are
filled with alarm. Former interpreters have been sur-
prised at this. It has seemed to them that the prophecy of
the lad's future heroic and blood-stained career ought, in
harmony with the general spirit pervading the old Norse
literature, to have awakened the parents' joy and pride.
But the matter is explained by the mythic connection
which makes Borgars' life constitute the transition period
from a happy and peaceful golden age to an age of war-
fare. With all their love of strife and admiration for
warlike deeds, the Teutons still were human, and shared
with all other people the opinion that peace and harmony
is something better and more desirable than war and
bloodshed. Like their Aryan kinsmen, they dreamed
of primeval Saturnia regna, and looked forward to a
regeneration which is to restore the reign of peace. Bor-
gar, in the myth, established the community, was the

188

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

legislator and judge. He was the hero of peaceful deeds,
who did not care to employ weapons except against wild
beasts and robbers. But the myth had also equipped him
with courage and strength, the necessary qualities for
inspiring respect and interest, and had given him abun-
dant opportunity for exhibiting these qualities in the
promotion of culture and the maintenance of the sacred-
ness of the law. Borgar was the Hercules of the
northern myth, who fought with the gigantic beasts and
robbers of the olden time. Saxo (Hist., 23) has pre-
served the traditions which tell how he at one time fought
breast to breast with a giant bear, conquering him and
bringing him fettered into his own camp.

As is well known, the family names Ylfings, Hildings,
Budlungs, &c., have in the poems of the Christian skalds
lost their specific application to certain families, and are
applied to royal and princely warriors in general. This
is in perfect analogy with the Christian Icelandic poetry,
according to which it is proper to take the name of any
viking, giant, or dwarf, and apply it to any special viking,
giant, or dwarf, a poetic principle which scholars even of
our time claim can also be applied in the interpretation of
the heathen poems. In regard to the old Norse poets this
method is, however, as impossible as it would be in Greek
poetry to call Odysseus a Peleid, or Achilleus a Laertia-
tid, or Prometheus Hephaestos, or Hephsestos Dsedalos.
The poems concerning Helge Hundingsbane are com-
piled in Christian times from old songs about Borgar's
son Halfdan, and we find that the patronymic appellations
Ylfing, Hilding, Budlung, and Lofdung are copiously

189

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

strewn on "Helge Hundingsbane." But, so far as the
above-quoted strophes are concerned, it can be shown that
the appellations Ylfing, Hilding, and Budlung are in fact
old usage and have a mythic foundation. The German
poem "Wolfdieterich und Sabin" calls Berchtung (Bor-
gar) Potelung — that is, Budlung; the poem "Wolfdiete-
rich" makes Berchtung the progenitor of the Hildings,
and adds : "From the same race the Ylfings have come to
us" — von dem selbe geslehte sint uns die wilfinge kumen
(v. 223).

Saxo mentions the Hilding Hildeger as Halfdan's half-
brother, and the traditions on which the saga of Asmund
Ksempebane is based has done the same (compare No.
43). The agreement in this point between German, Dan-
ish, and Icelandic statements points to an older source
common to them all, and furnishes an additional proof
that the German Berchtung occupied in the mythic
genealogies precisely the same place as the Norse Borgar.

That Thor is one of Halfdan's fathers, just as Heim-
dal is one of Borgar's, has already been pointed out above
(see No. 25). To a divine common fatherhood point
the words: "Drott it is said, saw in him (the lad just
born) a dayling (son of a god of light), a son divine."
Who the divine partner-father is, is indicated by the fact
that a storm has broken out the night when Drott's son
is born. There is a thunder-strife ing thrimo, the eagles
screech, and holy waters fall from the heavenly mountains
(from the clouds). The god of thunder is present, and
casts his shadow over the house where the child is born.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

31.

HALFDAN'S CHARACTER. THE WEAPON-MYTH.

The myths and heroic poems are not wanting in ideal
heroes, who are models of goodness of heart, justice, and
the most sensitive nobleness. Such are, for example, the
Asa-god Balder, his counter-part among heroes, Helge
Hjorvardson, Beowulf, and, to a certain degree also,
Sigurd Fafnesbane. Halfdan did not belong to this
group. His part in the myth is to be the personal
representative of the strife-age that came with him, of an
age when the inhabitants of the earth are visited by the
great winter and by dire misfortunes, when the demora-
lisation of the world has begun along with disturbances
in nature and when the words already are applicable,
"hart er i heimi" (hard is the world). Halfdan is
guilty of the abduction of a woman — the old custom of
taking a maid from her father by violence or cunning is
illustrated in his saga. It follows, however, that the myth
at the same time embellished him with qualities which
made him a worthy Teutonic patriarch, and attractive to
the hearers of the songs concerning him. These qualities
are, besides the necessary strength and courage, the above-
mentioned knowledge of runes, wherein he even surpasses
his father (Rigsth.), great skaldic gifts (Saxo, Hist.,
325), a liberality which makes him love to strew gold
about him (Helge Hund., i. 9), and an extraordinary,
fascinating physical beauty — which is emphasised by
Saxo (Hist., 30), and which is also evident from the fact
tha.t the Teutonic myth makes him, as the Greek myth

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

makes Achilleus, on one occasion don a woman's attire,
and resemble a valkyrie in this guise (Helge Hund., ii.).
No doubt the myth also described him as the model of a
faithful foster-brother in his relations to the silent Hamal,
who externally was so like him that the one could easily
be taken for the other (cp. Helge Hund., ii. 1, 6). In
all cases it is certain that the myth made the foster-bro-
therhood between Halfdan and Hamal the basis of the
unfailing fidelity with which Hamal's descendants, the
Amalians, cling to the son of Halfdan's favourite Had-
ding, and support his cause even amid the most difficult
circumstances (see Nos. 42, 43). The abduction of a
woman by Halfdan is founded in the physical interpreta-
tion of the myth, and can thus be justified. The wife he
takes by force is the goddess of vegetation, Groa, and he
does it because her husband Orvandel has made a com-
pact with the powers of frost (see Nos. 33, 38, 108, 109).
There are indications that our ancestors believed the
sword to be a later invention than the other kinds of
weapons, and that it was from the beginning under a
curse. The first and most important of all sword-smiths
was, according to the myth, Thjasse,* who accordingly
is called fadir inorna, the father of the swords (Haust-
laung, Younger Edda, 306). The best sword made by
him is intended to make way for the destruction of the
gods (see Nos. 33, 98, 101, 103). After various fortunes
it comes into the possession of Frey, but is of no service to
Asgard. It is given to the parents of the giantess Gerd,
and in Ragnarok it causes the death of Frey.

•Proofs of Thjasse's original identity with Volund are given i» Nos.
113-115.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Halfdan had two swords, which his mother's father,
for whom they were made, had buried in the earth, and his
mother long kept the place of concealment secret from
him. The first time he uses one of them he slays in a
duel his noble half-brother Hildeger, fighting on the side
of the Skilfings, without knowing who he is (cp. Saxo,
Hist., 351, 355, 356, with Asmund Ksempebane's saga).
Cursed swords are several times mentioned in the sagas.

Halfdan's weapon, which he wields successfully in
advantageous exploits, is in fact, the club (Saxo, Hist.,
26, 31, 323, 353). That the Teutonic patriarch's fav-
ourite weapon is the club, not the sword ; that the latter,
later, in his hand, sheds the blood of a kinsman ; and that
he himself finally is slain by the sword forged by Thjasse,
and that, too, in conflict with a son (the step-son Svipdag
— see below), I regard as worthy of notice from the
standpoint of the views cherished during some of the
centuries of the Teutonic heathendom in regard to the
various age and sacredness of the different kinds of
weapons. That the sword also at length was looked upon
as sacred is plain from the fact that it was adopted and
used by the Asa-gods. In Ragnarok, Vidar is to avenge
his father with a hjorr and pierce Fafner's heart (Vol-
uspa). Hjorr may, it is true, also mean a missile, but
still it is probable that it, in Vidar's hand, means a sword.
The oldest and most sacred weapons were the spear, the
hammer, the club, and the axe. The spear which, in the
days of Tacitus, and much later, was the chief weapon
both for foot-soldiers and cavalry in the Teutonic armies,
is wielded by the Asa-father himself, whose Gungner was

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

forged for him by Ivalde's sons before the dreadful enmity
between the gods and them had begun.

The hammer is Thor's most sacred weapon. Before
Sindre forged one for him of iron (Gylfaginning), he
wielded a hammer of stone. This is evident from the
very name hamarr, a rock, a stone. The club is, as we
have seen, the weapon of the Teutonic patriarch, and is
wielded side by side with Thor's hammer in the conflict
with the powers of frost. The battle-axe belonged to
Njord. This is evident from the metaphors found in
the Younger Edda, p. 346, and in Islend. Saga, 9. The
mythological kernel in the former metaphor is Njordrklauf
Her jan's hurdir, i.e., "Njord cleaved Odin's gates" (when
the Vans conquered Asgard) ; in the other the battle-axe
is called Gout's meginhurdar galli, i.e., "the destroyer of
Odin's great gate." The bow is a weapon employed by
the Asa-gods Hodr and Ullr, but Balder is slain by a shot
from the bow, and the chief archer of the myth is, as we
shall see, not an Asa-god, but a brother of Thjasse.
(Further discussion of the weapon-myth will be found
in No. 39.)

32.

HAINAN'S CONFLICTS INTERPRETED AS MYTHS OF
NATURE. THE WAR WITH THE HEROES FROM SVA-
RIN'S MOUND. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH DISES
OF VEGETATION.

In regard to the significance of the conflicts awaiting
Halfdan, and occupying his whole life, when interpreted

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

as myths of nature, we must remember that he inherits
from his father the duty of stopping the progress south-
ward of the giant-world's wintry agents, the kinsmen of
Thjasse, and of the Skilfing (Yngling) tribes dwelling
in the north. The migration sagas have, as we have seen,
shown that Borgar and his people had to leave the original
country and move south to Denmark, Saxland, and to
those regions on the other side of the Baltic in which the
Goths settled. For a time the original country is pos-
sessed by the conquerors who according to Voluspa, "from
Svarin's Mound attacked and took (sotti) the clayey
plains as far as Jaravall." But Halfdan represses them.
That the words quoted from Voluspa really refer to the
same mythic persons with whom Halfdan afterwards
fights is proved by the fact that Svarin and Svarin's
Mound are never named in our documents except in con-
nection with Halfdan's saga. In Saxo it is Halfdan-
Gram who slays Svarin and his numerous brothers; in
the saga of "Helge Hundingsbane" it is again Halfdan,
under the name Helge, who attacks tribes dwelling
around Svarin's Mound, and conquers them. To this
may be added, that the compiler of the first song about
Helge Hundingsbane borrowed from the saga-original,
on which the song is based, names which point to the
Voluspa strophe concerning the attack on the south Scan-
dinavian plains. In the category of names, or the genea-
logy of the aggressors, occur, as has been shown already,
the Skilfing names Alf and Yngve. Thus also in the
Helge-song's list of persons with whom the conflict is
waged in the vicinity of Svarin's Mound. In the V61-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

uspa's list Moinn is mentioned among the aggressors (in
the variation in the Prose Edda) ; in the Helge-song,
strophe 46, it is said that Helge-Halfdan fought a Moins-
heimom against his brave foes, whom he afterwards
slew in the battle around Svarin's Mound. IntheVoluspa's
list is named among the aggressors one Haugspori, "the
one spying from the mound" ; in the Helge-song is men-
tioned Sporvitnir, who from Svarin's Mound watches the
forces of Helge-Halfdan advancing. I have already (No.
28s), pointed out several other names which occur in the
Voluspa list, and whose connection with the myth con-
cerning the artists, frost-giants, and Skilfings of antiquity
and their attack on the original country, can be shown.

The physical significance of Halfdan's conflicts and
adventures is apparent also from the names of the women,
whom the saga makes him marry. Groa (grow), whom he
robs and keeps for some time, is, as her very name indi-
cates, a goddess of vegetation. Signe-Alveig, whom he
afterwards marries, is the same. Her name signifies
"the nourishing drink." According to Saxo she is the
daughter of Sumblus, Latin for Sumbl, which means
feast, ale, mead, and is a synonym for Olvaldi, Olmodr,
names which belonged to the father of the Ivalde sons ( see
No. 123).

According to a well-supported statement in Forspjalls-
Ijod (see No. 123), Ivalde was the father of two groups
of children. The mother of one of these groups is a
giantess (see Nos. 113, 114, 115). With her he has
three sons, viz., the three famous artists of antiquity — Ide.
Gang-Urnir, and Thjasse. The mother of the other

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

group is a goddess of light (see No. 123). With her he
has daughters, who are goddesses of growth, among them
Idun and Signe-Alveig. That Idun is the daughter of
Ivalde is clear from Forspjallsljod (6), dlfa cettar
Ithunni, heto Ivallds ellri yngsta barna.

Of the names of their father Sumbl, Olvaldi, Olmodr,
it may be said that, as nature-symbols, "61" (ale) and
"mjod" (mead), are in the Teutonic mythology identical
with soma and somamadhu in Rigveda and haoma in
A vesta, that is, they are the strength-developing, nourish-
ing saps in nature. Mimer's subterranean well, from
which the world-tree draws its nourishment, is a mead-
fountain. In the poem "Haustlaung" Idun is called
Olgefn; in the same poem Groa is called Olgefion. Both
appellations refer to goddesses who give the drink of
growth and regeneration to nature and to the gods. Thus
we here have a family, the names and epithets of whose
members characterise them as forces, active in the service
of nature and of the god of harvests. Their names and
epithets also point to the family bond which unites them.
We have the group of names, Idvaldi, Idi, Idunn, and the
group, Olvaldi (Olmodr), Olgefn, and Olgefion, both
indicating members of the same family. Further on (see
Nos. 113, 114, 115), proof shall be presented that Groa's
first husband, Orvandel the brave, is one of Thjasse's
brothers, and thus that Groa, too, was closely connected
with this family.

As we know, it is the enmity caused by Loke between
the Asa-gods and the lower serving, yet powerful, divin-
ities of nature belonging to the Ivalde group, which pro-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

duces the terrible winter with its awful consequences for
man, and particularly for the Teutonic tribes. These
hitherto beneficent agents of growth have ceased to serve
the gods, and have allied themselves with the frost-giants.
The war waged by Halfdan must be regarded from this
standpoint. Midgard's chief hero, the real Teutonic
patriarch, tries to reconquer for the Teutons the country
of which winter has robbed them. To be able to do this,
he is the son of Thor, the divine foe of the frost-giants,
and performs on the border of Midgard a work corres-
ponding to that which Thor has to do in space and in
Jotunheim. And in the same manner as Heimdal before
secured favourable conditions of nature to the original
country, by uniting the sun-goddess with himself through
bonds of love, his grandson Halfdan now seeks to do the
same for the Teutonic country, by robbing a hostile son
of Ivalde, Orvandel, of his wife Groa, the growth-giver,
and thereupon also of Alveig, the giver of the nourishing
sap. A symbol of nature may also be found in Saxo's
statement, that the king of Svithiod, Sigtrygg, Groa's
father, could not be conquered unless Halfdan fastened
a golden ball to his club (Hist., 31). The purpose of
Half dan's conflicts, the object which the norns particu-
larly gave to his life, that of reconquering from the powers
of frost the northernmost regions of the Teutonic territory
and of permanently securing them for culture, and the
difficulty of this task is indicated, it seems to me, in the
strophes above quoted, which tell us that the norns fas-
tened the woof of his power in the east and west, and
that he from the beginning, and undisputed, extended the

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

sceptre of his rule over these latitudes, while in regard to
the northern latitudes, it is said that Nere's kinswoman,
the chief of the norns (see Nos. 57-64, 85), cast a single
thread in this direction and prayed that it might hold for
ever *

ther austr oc vestr

en da falo,

thar atti lofdungr

land a milli;

bra nipt Nera

a nordrvega

einni festi,

ey bath hon halda.

The norns' prayer was heard. That the myth made
Halfdan proceed victoriously to the north, even to the
very starting-point of the emigration to the south caused
by the fimbul-winter, that is to say, to Svarin's Mound,
is proved by the statements that he slays Svarin and his
brothers, and wins in the vicinity of Svarin's Mound the
victory over his opponents, which was for a time decisive.
His penetration into the north, when regarded as a
nature-myth, means the restoration of the proper change
of seasons, and the rendering of the original country and
of Svithiod inhabitable. As far as the hero, who secured
the "giver of growth" and the "giver of nourishing sap,"
succeeds with the aid of his father Thor to carry his
weapons into the Teutonic lands destroyed by frost, so
far spring and summer again extend the sceptre of their
reign. The songs about Helge Hundingsbane have also
preserved from the myth the idea that Halfdan and his
forces penetrating northward by land and by sea are ac-
companied in the air by "valkyries," "goddesses from the

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

south," armed with helmets, coats of mail, and shining
spears, who fight the forces of nature that are hostile to
Halfdan, and these valkyries are in their very nature
goddesses of growth, from the manes of whose horses
falls the dew which gives the power of growth back to
the earth and harvests to men. (Cp. Helg. Hund., i. 15,
30; ii., the prose to v. 5, 12, 13, with Helg. Hjorv., 28.)
On this account the Swedes, too, have celebrated Halfdan
in their songs as their patriarch and benefactor, and
according to Saxo they have worshipped him as a divin-
ity, although it was his task to check the advance of the
Skilfings to the south.

Doubtless it is after this successful war that Halfdan
performs the great sacrifice mentioned in Skaldskaparmal,
ch. 64, in order that he may retain his royal power for
three hundred years. The statement should be compared
with what the German poems of the middle ages tell
about the longevity of Berchtung-Borgar and other heroes
of antiquity. They live for several centuries. But the
response Halfdan gets from the powers to whom he
sacrificed is that he shall live simply to the age of an old
man, and that in his family there shall not for three
hundred years be born a woman or a fameless man.
/

33.

REVIEW OF THE SVIPDAG MYTH AND ITS POINTS OF CON-
NECTION WITH THE MYTH ABOUT HALFDAN (cp.

No. 24).

When Halfdan secured Groa, she was already the bride

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of Orvandel the brave, and the first son she bore in Half-
dan's house was not his, but Orvandel's. The son's name
is Svipdag. He develops into a hero who, like Halfdan
himself, is the most brilliant and most beloved of those
celebrated in Teutonic songs. We have devoted a special
part of this work to him (see Nos. 96-107). There we
have given proofs of various mythological facts, which I
now already must incorporate with the following series
of events in order that the epic thread may not be want-
ing:

(a) Groa bears with Halfdan the son Guthorm (Saxo,
Hist., Dan,, 34).

(6) Groa is rejected by Halfdan (Saxo, Hist. Dan.,
33). She returns to Orvandel, and brings with her her
own and his son Svipdag.

(c) Halfdan marries Signe-Alveig (Hyndluljod, 15;
Prose Edda, i. 516; Saxo Hist., 33), and with her
becomes the father of the son Hadding ( Saxo, Hist. Dan.,
34).

(d) Groa dies, and Orvandel marries again (Grogaldr,
3). Before her death Groa has told her son that if he
needs her help he must go to her grave and invoke her
(Grogaldr, I).

(e) It is Svipdag's duty to revenge on Halfdan the
disgrace done to his mother and the murder of his
mother's father Sigtrygg. But his stepmother bids Svip-
dag seek Menglad, "the one loving ornaments" (Gro-
galdr, 3).

(/) Under the weight of these tasks Svipdag goes to
his mother's grave, bids her awake from her sleep of

i* 201

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

death, and from her he receives protecting incantations
(Grogaldr, 1).

(g) Before Svipdag enters upon the adventurous
expedition to find Menglad, he undertakes, at the head
of the giants, the allies of the Ivaldesons (see Fjolsvinsm,
1, where Svipdag is called thursathjo\dar sjolr} , a war of
revenge against Half dan (Saxo, 33 ff., 325; cp. Nos. 102,
103). The host of giants is defeated, and Svipdag, who
has entered into a duel with his stepfather, is overcome
by the latter. Halfdan offers to spare his life and adopt
him as his son. But Svipdag refuses to accept life as a
gift from him, and answers a defiant no to the proffered
father-hand. Then Halfdan binds him to a tree and
leaves him to his fate (Saxo, Hist., 325; cp. No. 103).

(h) Svipdag is freed from his bonds through one of
the incantations sung over him by his mother (Gro-
galdr, 10).

(i) Svipdag wanders about sorrowing in the land of
the giants. Gevarr-Nokkve, god of the moon (see Nos.
90, 91), tells him how he is to find an irresistible sword,
which is always attended by victory (see No. 101). The
Sword is forged by Thjasse, who intended to destroy the
world of the gods with it; but just at the moment when
the smith had finished his weapon he was surprised in his
sleep by Mimer, who put him in chains and took the sword.
The latter is now concealed in the lower world (see Nos.
98, 101, 103).

(/) Following Gevarr-Nokkve's directions, Svipdag
goes to the northernmost edge of the world, and finds
there a descent to the lower world ; he conquers the guard

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of the gates of Hades, sees the wonderful regions down
there, and succeeds in securing the sword of victory (see
Nos. 53, 97, 98, 101, 103, 112).

(&) Svipdag begins a new war with Half dan. Thor
fights on his son's side, but the irresistible sword cleaves
the hammer Mjolner; the Asa-god himself must yield.
The war ends with Half dan's defeat. He dies of the
wounds he has received in the battle (see Nos. 101, 103;
cp. Saxo, Hist., 34).

(/) Svipdag seeks and finds Menglad, who is Freyja
who was robbed by the giants. He liberates her and sends
her pure and undefiled to Asgard (see Nos. 96, 98, 100,
102).

(m) Idun is brought back to Asgard by Loke.
Thjasse, who is freed from his prison at Mimer's, pursues,
in the guise of an eagle, Loke to the walls of Asgard,
where he is slain by the gods (see the Eddas).

(«) Svipdag, armed with the sword of victory, goes
to Asgard, is received joyfully by Freyja, becomes her
husband, and presents his sword of victory to Frey.
Reconciliation between the gods and the Ivalde race.
Njord marries Thjasse's daughter Skade. Orvandel's
second son Ull, Svipdag's half-brother (see No. 102), is
adopted in Valhal. A sister of Svipdag is married to
Forsete (Hyndluljod, 20). The gods honour the mem-
ory of Thjasse by connecting his name with certain stars
(Harbardsljod, 19). A similar honour had already been
paid to his brother Orvandel (Prose Edda).

From this series of events we find that, although the
Teutonic patriarch finally succumbs in the war which he

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

waged against the Thjasse-race and the frost-powers led
by Thjasse's kinsmen, still the results of his work are
permanent. When the crisis had reached its culminating
point; when the giant hosts of the fimbul-winter had
received as their leader the son of Orvandel, armed with
the irresistible sword; when Half dan's fate is settled;
when Thor himself, Midgard's veorr (Volusp.), the
mighty protector of earth and the human race, must
retreat with his lightning hammer broken into pieces, then
the power of love suddenly prevails and saves the world.
Svipdag, who, under the spell of his deceased mother's
incantations from the grave, obeyed the command of his
stepmother to find and rescue Freyja from the power
of the giants, thereby wins her heart and earns the grati-
tude of the gods. He has himself learned to love her,
and is at last compelled by his longing to seek her in
Asgard. The end of the power of the fimbul-winter is
marked by Freyja's and Idun's return to the gods, by
Thjasse's death, by the presentation of the invincible
sword to the god of harvests (Frey), by the adoption of
Thjasse's kinsmen, Svipdag, Ull, and Skade in Asgard,
and by several marriage ties celebrated in commemoration
of the reconciliation between Asgard's gods and the kins-
men of the great artist of antiquity.

34.

THE WORLD WAR. ITS CAUSE. THE MURDER OF GUU,-
VEIG-HEIDR. THE VOICE OF COUNSEL BETWEEN THE
ASAS AND THE VANS.

Thus the peace of the world and the order of nature

204

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

might seem secured. But it is not long before a new war
breaks out, to which the former may be regarded as
simply the prelude. The feud, which had its origin in
the judgment passed by the gods on Thjasse's gifts,
and which ended in the marriage of Svipdag and Freyja,
was waged for the purpose of securing again for settle-
ment and culture the ancient domain and Svithiod, where
Heimdal had founded the first community. It was con-
fined within the limits of the North Teutonic peninsula,
and in it the united powers of Asgard supported the other
Teutonic tribes fighting under Half dan. But the new
conflict rages at the same time in heaven and in earth,
between the divine clans of the Asas and the Vans, and
between all the Teutonic tribes led into war with each
other by Halfdan's sons. From the standpoint of Teu-
tonic mythology it is a world war; and Voluspa calls it
the first great war in the world — folcvig fyrst i heimi (str.
21, 25).

Loke was the cause of the former prelusive war. His
feminine counterpart and ally Gullveig-Heidr, who grad-
ually is blended, so to speak, into one with him, causes the
other. This is apparent from the following Voluspa
strophes :

Str. 21. That man hon folcvig
fyrst i heimi
er Gullveig
geirum studdu
oc i haull Hars
hana brendo.

Str. 22. Thrysvar brendo
thrysvar borna

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

opt osialdan
tho hon en lifir.

Str. 23. Heida hana heto

hvars til husa com
volo velspa
vitti hon ganda
seid hon kuni
seid hon Leikin,
e var hon angan
illrar brudar.

Str. 24. Tha gengo regin oil
a raukstola
ginheilog god
oc um that gettuz
hvart scyldo esir
afrad gialda
etha scyldo godin aull
gildi eiga.

Str. 25. Fleygde Odin

oc i folc um scaut
that var en folcvig
fyrst i heimi.

Brotin var bordvegr
borgar asa
knatto vanir vigspa
vollo sporna.

The first thing to be established in the interpretation of
these strophes is the fact that they, in the order in which
they are found in Codex Regius, and in which I have
given them, all belong together and refer to the same
mythic event — that is, to the origin of the great world
war. This is evident from a comparison of strophe 21
with 25, the first and last of those quoted. Both speak of

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the war, which is called folkvig fyrst i heimi. The former
strophe informs us that it occurred as a result of, and in
connection with, the murder of Gulveig, a murder com-
mitted in Valhal itself, in the hall of the Asa-father,
beneath the roof where the gods of the Asa-clan are
gathered around their father. The latter strophe tells
that the first great war in the world produced a separation
between the two god-clans, the Asas and Vans, a division
caused by the fact that Odin, hurling his spear, inter-
rupted a discussion between them; and the strophe also
explains the result of the war : the bulwark around Asgard
was broken, and the Vans got possession of the power
of the Asas. The discussion or council is explained in
strophe 24. It is there expressly emphasised that all
the gods, the Asas and Vans, regin oil, godin aull,
solemnly assemble and seat themselves on their raukstola
to counsel together concerning the murder of Gullvelg-
Heidr. Strophe 23 has already described who Gulveig
is, and thus given at least one reason for the hatred of the
Asas towards her, and for the treatment she receives in
Odin's hall. It is evident that she was in Asgard under
the name Gulveig, since Gulveig was killed and burnt in
Valhal ; but Midgard, the abode of man, has also been the
scene of her activity. There she has roamed about under
the name Heidr, practising the evil arts of black sorcery
(see No. 27) and encouraging the evil passions of man-
kind : ce var hon angan illrar brudar. Hence Gulveig
suffers the punishment which from time immemorial was
established among the Aryans for the practice of the black
art: she was burnt. And her mysteriously terrible and

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

magic nature is revealed by the fact that the flames,
though kindled by divine hands, do not have the power
over her that they have over other agents oi sorcery. The
gods burn her thrice; they pierce the body of the witch
with their spears, and hold her over the flames of the
fire. All is in vain. They cannot prevent her return
and regeneration. Thrice burned and thrice born, she
still lives.

After Voluspa has given an account of the vala who in
Asgard was called Gullveig and on earth Heidr, the
poem speaks, in strophe 24, of the dispute which arose
among the gods on account of her murder. The gods
assembled on and around the judgment-seats are divided
into two parties, of which the Asas constitute the one.
The fact that the treatment received by Gulveig can
become a question of dispute which ends in enmity
between the gods is a proof that only one of the god-clans
has committed the murder ; and since this took place, not
in Njord's, or Frey's, or Freyja's halls, but in Valhal,
where Odin rules and is surrounded by his sons, it fol-
lows that the Asas must have committed the murder. Of
course, Vans who were guests in Odin's hall might have
been the perpetrators of the murder; but, on the one
hand, the poem would scarcely have indicated Odin's
hall as the place where Gulveig was to be punished, unless
it wished thereby to point out the Asas as the doers of the
deed, and, on the other hand, we cannot conceive the
murder as possible, as described in Voluspa, if the Vans
were the ones who committed it, and the Asas were
Gulveig's protectors; for then the latter, who were the

208

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

lords in Valhal, would certainly not have permitted the
Vans quietly and peaceably to subject Gulveig to the long
torture there described, in which she is spitted on spears
and held over the flames to be burnt to ashes.

That the Asas committed the murder is also corrobor-
ated by Voluspa's account of the question in dispute. One
of the views prevailing in the consultation and discussion
in regard to the matter is that the Asas ought to afrdd
gjalda in reference to the murder committed. In this
afrdd gfalda we meet with a phrase which is echoed in the
laws of Iceland, and in the old codes of Norway and
Sweden. There can be no doubt that the phrase has
found its way into the language of the law from the
popular vernacular, and that its legal significance was
simply more definite and precise than its use in the verna-
cular. The common popular meaning of the phrase is
to pay compensation. The compensation may be of any
kind whatsoever. It may be rent for the use of another's
field, or it may be taxes for the enjoyment of social rights,
or it may be death and wounds for having waged war.
In the present instance, it must mean compensation to be
paid by the Asas for the slaying of Gullveig-Heidr. As
such a demand could not be made by the Asas themselves,
it must have been made by the Vans and their supporters
in the discussion. Against this demand we have the pro-
position from the Asas that all the gods should gildi eiga.
In regard to this disputed phrase at least so much is clear,
that it must contain either an absolute or a partial counter-
proposition to the demand of the Vans, and its purpose
must be that the Asas ought not — at least, not alone — to

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

pay the compensation for the murder, but that the crime
should be regarded as one in reference to which all the
gods, the Asas and the Vans, were alike guilty, and as
one for which they all together should assume the respon-
sibility.

The discussion does not lead to a friendly settlement.
Something must have been said at which Odin has
become deeply offended, for the Asa- father, distinguished
for his wisdom and calmness, hurls his spear into the
midst of those deliberating — a token that the contest of
reason against reason is at an end, and that it is to be
followed by a contest with weapons.

The myth concerning this deliberation between Asas
and Vans was well known to Saxo, and what he has
to say about it (Hist., 126 ff.), turning myth as usual
into history, should be compared with Voluspa's account,
for both these sources complement each other.

The first thing that strikes us in Saxo's narrative is
that sorcery, the black art, plays, as in Voluspa, the chief
part in the chain of events. His account is taken from a
mythic circumstance, mentioned by the heathen skald
Kormak (seid Yggr til Rindar — Younger Edda, i. 236),
according to which Odin, forced by extreme need, sought
the favour of Rind, and gained his point by sorcery and
witchcraft, as he could not gain it otherwise. According
to Saxo, Odin touched Rind with a piece of bark on which
he had inscribed magic songs, and the result was that
she became insane (Rinda . . . quam Othinus cortice
carminibus adnotato contingens lymphanti similem red-
didif). In immediate connection herewith it is related

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

that the gods held a council, in which it was claimed that
Odin had stained his divine honour, and ought to be
deposed from his royal dignity (dii . . . Othinum variis
majestatis detriments divinitatis gloriam maculasse cern-
entes, collegia suo submovendum duxerunt — Hist., 129).
Among the deeds of which his opponents i-n this council
accused him was, as it appears from Saxo, at least one
of which he ought to take the consequences, but for which
all the gods ought not to be held responsible (. . . ne vel
ipsi, alieno crimine implicati, insontes nocentis crimine
punirentur* — Hist., 129 ; in omnium caput unius culpam
recidere putares, Hist., 130). The result of the delibera-
tion of the gods is, in Saxo as in Voluspa, thai? Odin, is
banished, and that another clan of gods than his holds the
power for some time. Thereupon he is, with the consent
of the reigning gods, recalled to the throne, which he
henceforth occupies ki a brilliant manner. Rut one of
his first acts after his return is to banish the black art and
its agents from heaven and from earth (Hist., 44).

Thus the chain of events in Saxo both begins and ends
with sorcery. It is the background on which both in
Saxo and in Voluspa those events occur which are con-
nected with the dispute between the Asas and Vans. In
both the documents the gods meet in council before the
breaking out of the enmity. In both the question turns
on a deed done by Odin, for which certain gods do not
wish to take the responsibility. Saxo indicates this by
the words : Ne vel ipsi, alieno crimine implicati innocentes
nocentis crimine punirentur. Voluspa indicates it by let-
ting the Vans present, against the proposition that godin

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

oil skyldu gildi eiga, the claim that Odin's own clan, and
it alone, should afrdd gjalda. And while Voluspa makes
Odin suddenly interrupt the deliberations and hurl his
spear among the deliberators, Saxo gives us the explana-
tion of his sudden wrath. He and his clan had slain and
burnt Gulveig-Heid because she practised sorcery and
other evil arts of witchcraft. And as he refuses to make
compensation for the murder and demands that all the
gods take the consequences and share the blame, the Vans
have replied in council, that he too once practised sorcery
on the occasion when he visited Rind, and that, if Gulveig
was justly burnt for this crime, then he ought justly to
be deposed from his dignity stained by the same crime as
the ruler of all the gods. Thus Voluspa's and Saxo's
accounts supplement and illustrate each other.

One dark point remains, however. Why have the Vans
objected to the killing of Gulveig-Heid? Should this
clan of gods, celebrated in song as benevolent, useful,
and pure, be kindly disposed toward the evil and corrupt-
ing arts of witchcraft ? This cannot have been the mean-
ing of the myth. As shall be shown, the evil plans of
Gulveig-Heid have particularly been directed against
those very Vana-gods who in the council demand com-
pensation for her death. In this regard Saxo has in
perfect faithfulness toward his mythic source represented
Odin on the one hand, and his opponents among the
gods on the other, as alike hostile to the black art. Odin,
who on one occasion and under peculiar circumstances,
which I shall discuss in connection with the Balder myth,
was guilty of the practise of sorcery, is nevertheless the

212

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

declared enemy of witchcraft, and Saxo makes him take
pains to forbid and persecute it. The Vans likewise look
upon it with horror, and it is this horror which adds
strength to their words when they attack and depose
Odin, because he has himself practised that for which he
has punished Gulveig.

The explanation of the fact is, as shall be shown below,
that Frey, on account of a passion of which he is the
victim (probably through sorcery), was driven to marry
the giant maid Gerd, whose kin in that way became friends
of the Vans. Frey is obliged to demand satisfaction for
a murder perpetrated on a kinswoman of his wife. The
kinship of blood demands its sacred right, and according
to Teutonic ideas of law, the Vans must act as they do
regardless of the moral character of Gulveig.

35.

GULVEIG-HEIDR. HER IDENTITY WITH AURBODA, ANGR-
BODA, HYRROKIN. THE MYTH CONCERNING THE
SWORD GUARDIAN AND

The duty of the Vana-deities becomes even more plain,
if it can be shown that Gulveig-Heid is Gerd's mother ; for
Frey, supported by the Vana-gods, then demands satis-
faction for the murder of his own mother-in-law. Gerd's
mother is, in Hyndluljod, 30, called Aurboda, and is the
wife of the giant Gymer :

Freyr atti Gerdi,
Hon vor Gymis dottir,
iotna settar
ok Aurbodu.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

It can, in fact, be demonstrated that Aurboda is identi-
cal with Gulveig-Heid. The evidence is given below in
two divisions, (a) Evidence that Gulveig-Heid is identi-
cal with Angerboda, "the ancient one in the Ironwood;"
(6) evidence that Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda is identical
with Aurboda, Gerd's mother.

(a) Gulveid-Heid identical with Angerboda.

Hyndluljod, 40, 41, says:

Ol ulf Loki
vid Angrbodu,
(enn Sleipni gat
vid Svadilfara) ;
eitt thotti skars
allra feiknazst
that var brodur fra
Byleistz komit.

Loki af hiarta
lindi brendu,
fann hann haalfsuidinn
hugstein konu;
vard Loptr kvidugr
af konu illri;
thadan er aa folldu
flagd hvert komit.

From the account we see that an evil female being
(ill kona) had been burnt, but that the flames were not
able to destroy the seed of life in her nature. Her heart
had not been burnt through or changed to ashes. It was
only half-burnt (hdlfsvidinn hugsteinn}, and in this con-
dition it had together with the other remains of the
cremated woman been thrown away, for Loke finds and
swallows the heart.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Our ancestors looked upon the heart as the seat of the
life principle, of the soul of living beings. A number of
linguistic phrases are founded on the idea that goodness
and evil, kindness and severity, courage and cowardice,
joy and sorrow, are connected with the character of the
heart ; sometimes we find hjarta used entirely in the sense
of soul, as in the expression hold ok hjarta, soul and body.
So long as the heart in a dead body had not gone into
decay, it was believed that the principle of life dwelling
therein still was able, under peculiar circumstances, to
operate on the limbs and exercise an influence on its
environment, particularly if the dead person in life had
been endowed with a will at once evil and powerful. In
such cases it was regarded as important to pierce the
heart of the dead with a pointed spear (cp. Saxo, Hist.,
43, and No. 95).

The half-burnt heart, accordingly, contains the evil
woman's soul, and its influence upon Loke, after he has
swallowed it, is most remarkable. Once before when he
bore Sleipner with the giant horse Svadilfare, Loke had
revealed his androgynous nature. So he does now. The
swallowed heart redeveloped the feminine in him
(Loki lindi af brendu hjarta}. It fertilised him with the
evil purposes which the heart contained. Loke became
the possessor of the evil woman (kvidugr af konu illri},
and became the father of the children from which the
trolls (flagd) are come which are found in the world.
First among the children is mentioned the wolf, which is
called Penrir, and which in Ragnarok shall cause the
death of the Asa-father. To this event point Njord's

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

words about Loke, in Lokasenna, str. 33 : ass ragr er hefir
born of borit. The woman possessing the half-burnt
heart, who is the mother or rather the father of the wolf,
is called Angerboda (61 ulf Loki zrid Angrb&du}. N. M.
Peterson and other mythologists have rightly seen that she
is the same as "the old one," who in historical times and
until Ragnarok dwells in the Ironwood, and "there fosters
Fenrer's kinsmen" (Voluspa, 39), her own offspring,
which at the close of this period are to issue from the
Ironwood, and break into Midgard and dye its. citadels
with blood (Voluspa, 30).

The fact that Angerboda now dwells in the Ironwood,
although there on a former occasion did not remain more
of her than a half-burnt heart, proves that the attempt to
destroy her with fire was unsuccessful, and that she arose
again in bodily form after this cremation, and became
the mother and nourisher of were-wolves. Thus the
myth about Angerboda is identical with the myth about
Gulveig-Heid in the two characteristic points :

Unsuccessful burning of an evil woman.
Her regeneration after the cremation.

These points apply equally to Gulveig-Heid and to Anger-
boda, "the old one in the Ironwood."

The myth about Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, as it was
remembered in the first period after the introduction of
Christianity, we find in part recapitulated in Helgakvida
Hundingsbane, i. 37-40, where Sinfjotle compares his
opponent Gudmund with the evil female principle in the
heathen mythology, the vala in question, and where

216

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Gudmund in return compares Sinfjotle with its evil mas-
culine principle, Loke.
Sinfjotle says :

Thu vart vaulva
i Varinseyio,
scollvis kona
bartu scrauc saman;

Thu vart, en scetha,

scass valkyria,

autul, amatlig

at Alfaudar;

mundo einherjar

allir beriaz,

svevis kona,

um sakar thinar.

Nio attu vith

a neri Sagu

ulfa alna

ec var einn fathir theirra.

Gudmund's answer begins:

Fadir varattu
fenrisulfa. . . .

The evil woman with whom one of the two heroes com-
pares the other is said to be a vala, who has practised
her art partly on Varin's Isle partly in Asgard at Alfath-
er's, and there she was the cause of a war in which all the
warriors of Asgard took part. This refers to the war
between the Asas and Vans. It is the second feud among
the powers of Asgard.

16 217

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The vala must therefore be Gulveig-Heid of the myth,
on whose account the war between the Asas and Vans
broke out, according to Voluspa. Now it is said of her
in the lines above quoted, that she gave birth to wolves,
and that these wolves were "fenrisulfar." Of Anger-
boda we already know that she is the mother of the
real Fenris-wolf, and that she, in the Ironwood, pro-
duces other wolves which are called by Fenrer's name
(Fenris kindir — Voluspa). Thus the identity of Gulveig-
Heid and Angerboda is still further established by the fact
that both the one and the other is called the mother of the
Fenris family.

The passage quoted is not the only one which has
preserved the memory of Gulveig-Heid as mother of the
wlere-wolves. Volsungasaga (c. ii. 8) relates that a
giantess, Hrimnir's daughter, first dwelt in Asgard as
the maid-servant of Frigg, then on earth, and that she,
during her sojourn on earth, became the wife of a king,
and with him the mother and grandmother of were-
wolves, who infested the woods and murdered men. The
fantastic and horrible saga about these were-wolves has,
in Christian times and by Christian authors been con-
nected with the poems about Helge Hundingsbane and
Sigurd Fafnersbane. The circumstance that the giantess
in question first dwelt in Asgard and thereupon in Mid-
gard, indicates that she is identical with Gulveig-Heid,
and this identity is confirmed by the statement that she
is a daughter of the giant Hrimnir.

The myth, as it has come down to our days, knows
only one daughter of this giant, and she is the same as

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Gulveig-Heid. Hyndluljod states that Heidr is Hrimnir's
daughter, and mentions no sister of hers, but, on the
other hand, a brother Hrossthiofr (Heidr ok Hrorsthiofr
Hrimnis kindar — Hyndl., 30). In allusion to the crema-
tion of Gulveig-Heid fire is called in Thorsdrapa Hrimnis
drosar lyptisylgr, "the lifting drink of Hrimner's daugh-
ter," the drink which Heid lifted up on spears had to
drink. Nowhere is any other daughter of Hrimner men-
tioned. And while it is stated in the above-cited strophe
that the giantess who caused the war in Asgard and
became the mother of fenris-wolves was a vala on Varin's
Isle (ycmlvcL i Varinseyio}, a comparison of Helgakv.
Hund., i. 26, with Volsungasaga, c. 2, shows that Varin's
Isle and Varin's Fjord were located in that very country,
where Hrimner's daughter was supposed to have been for
some time the wife of a king and to have given birth to
were-wolves.

Thus we have found that the three characteristic
points —

unsuccessful cremation of an evil giantess,

her regeneration after the cremation,

the same woman as mother of the Fenrer race —

are common to Gulveig-Heid and Angerboda.

Their identity is apparent from various other circum-
stances, but may be regarded as completely demonstrated
by the proofs given. Gulveig's activity in antiquity as
the founder of the diabolical magic art, as one who
awakens man's evil passions and produces strife in Asgard
itself, has its complement in Angerboda's activity as the

219

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

mother and nourisher of that class of beings in whose
members witchcraft, thirst for blood, and hatred of the
gods are personified. The activity of the evil principle
has, in the great epic of the myth, formed a continuity
spanning all ages, and this continuous thread of evil is
twisted from the treacherous deeds of Gulveig and Loke,
the feminine and the masculine representatives of the
evil principle. Both appear at the dawn of mankind:
Loke has already at the beginning of time secured access
to Alfather (Lokasenna, 9), and Gulveig deceives the
sons of men already in the time of Heimdal's son Borgar.
Loke entices Idun from the secure grounds of Asgard,
and treacherously delivers her to the powers of frost;
Gulveig, as we shall see, plays Freyja into the hands of
the giants. Loke plans enmity between the gods and the
forces of nature, which hitherto had been friendly, and
which have their personal representatives in Ivalde's sons ;
Gulveig causes the war between the Asas and Vans. The
interference of both is interrupted at the close of the
mythic age, when Loke is chained, and Gulveig, in the
guise of Angerboda, is an exile in the Ironwood. Before
this they have for a time been blended, so to speak, into
a single being, in which the feminine assuming masculine-
ness, and the masculine effeminated, bear to the world an
offspring of foes to the gods and to creation. Both
finally act their parts in the destruction of the world.
Before that crisis comes Angerboda has fostered that
host of "sons of world-ruin" which Loke is to lead to
battle, and a magic sword which she has kept in the
Ironwood is given to Surt, in whose hand it is to be the

220

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

death of Frey, the lord of harvests (see Nos. 89, 98, 101,
103).

That the woman who in antiquity, in various guises,
visited Asgard and Midgard was believed to have had
her home in the Ironwood* of the East during the histori-
cal age down to Ragnarok is explained by what Saxo
says — viz., that Odin, after his return and reconciliation
with the Vans, banished the agents of the black art both
from heaven and from earth. Here, too, the connection
between Gulveig-Heid and Angerboda is manifest. The
war between the Asas and Vans was caused by the burn-
ing of Gulveig by the former. After the reconciliation
with the Asas this punishment cannot again be inflicted on
the regenerated witch. The Asas must allow her to live
to the end of time; but both the clans of gods agree
that she must not show her face again in Asgard or Mid-
gard. The myth concerning the banishment of the fam-
ous vala to the Ironwood, and of the Loke progeny which
she there fosters, has been turned into history by Jordanes
in his De Goth. Origine, ch. 24, where it is stated that
a Gothic king compelled the suspected valas (haliorunas}
found among his people to take their refuge to the deserts
in the East beyond the Mceotian Marsh, where they mixed
with the wood-sprites, and thus became the progenitors
of the Huns. In this manner the Christian Goths got
from their mythic traditions an explanation of the source
of the eastern hosts of horsemen, whose ugly faces and

*In Voluspa the wood is called both Jarnvidr, Gaglvidr (Cod. Reg.),
and Galgvidr (Cod. Hauk.). It may be that we here have a fossil word
preserved in Voluspa meaning metal. Perhaps the wood was a copper or
bronze forest before it became an iron wood. Compare ghalgha, ghalghi
(Pick., ii. 578) = metal, which, again, is to be compared with Chalkos.=
copper, bronze.

221

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

barbarous manners seemed to them to prove an other than
purely human origin. The vala Gulveig-Heid and her
like become in Jordanes these haliorunce; Loke and the
giants of the Ironwood become these wood-sprites; the
Asa-god who caused the banishment becomes a king, son
of Gandaricus Magnus (the great ruler of the Gandians,
Odin), and Loke's and Angerboda's wonderful progeny
become the Huns.

Stress should be laid on the fact that Jordanes and Saxo
have in the same manner preserved the tradition that Odin
and the Asas, after making peace and becoming reconciled
with the Vans, do not apply the death-penalty and burn-
ing to Gulveid-Heid-Angerboda and her kith and kin,
but, instead, sentence them to banishment from the
domains of gods and men. That the tradition preserved
in Saxo and Jordanes corresponded with the myth is
proved by the fact that we there rediscover Gulveig-Heid-
Angerboda with her offspring in the Ironwood, which was
thought to be situated in the utmost East, far away from
the human world, and that she remains there undisturbed
until the destruction of the world. The reconciliation
between the Asas and Vans has, as this conclusively
shows, been based on an admission on the part of the
Asas that the Vans had a right to find fault with and
demand satisfaction for the murder of Gulveig-Heid.
Thus the dispute which caused the war between Asas
and Vans was at last decided to the advantage of the
latter, while they on their part, after being satisfied, rein-
state Odin in his dignity as universal ruler and father of
the gods.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

(&) Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda identical with Aurboda.

In the Ironwood dwells Angerboda, together with a
giant, who is gygjar kirdir, the guardian and watcher
of the giantess. He has charge of her remarkable herds,
and also guards a sword brought to the Ironwood. This
vocation has given him the epithet Egther (Egtherr —
Voluspa), which means sword-guardian. Saxo speaks of
him as Egtherus, an ally of Finns, skilled in magic, and
a chief of Bjarmians, equally skilful in magic (cp. Hist.,
248, 249, with Nos. 52, 53). Bjarmians and Finns are
in Saxo made the heirs of the wicked inhabitants of
Jotunheim. Vilkinasaga knows him by the name Etgeir,
who watches over precious implements in Isung's wood.
Etgeir is a corruption of Egther, and Isung's wood is a
reminiscence of Isarnvidr, Isarnho, the Ironwood. In the
Vilkinasaga he is the brother of Vidolf. According to
Hyndluljod, all the valas of the myth come from Vidolf.
As Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda is the chief of all valas, and
the teacher of the arts practised by the valas this state-
ment in Hyndluljod makes us think of her particularly;
and as Hrimnir's daughter has been born and burnt
several times, she may also have had several fathers.
Among them, then, is Vidolf, whose character, as des-
cribed by Saxo, fits well for such a daughter. He is a
master in sorcery, and also skilful in the art of medicine.
But the medical art he practises in such a manner that
those who seek his help receive from him such remedies
as do harm instead of good. Only by threats can he be
made to do good with his art (Hist., 323, 324). The
statement in Vilkinasaga compared with that in Hynd-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

luljod seems therefore to point to a near kinship between
Angerboda and her sword-guard. She appears to be the
daughter of his brother.

In Voluspa's description of the approach of Ragnarok,
Egther Angerboda's shepherd, is represented as sitting
on a mound — like Aurboda's shepherd in Skirnisfor — and
playing a harp, happy over that which is to happen. That
the giant who is hostile to the gods, and who is the
guardian of the strange herds, does not play an idyl on
the strings of his harp does not need to be stated. He is
visited by a being in the guise of the red cock. The cock,
says Voluspa, is Fjalarr (str. 44).

What the heathen records tell us about Fjalar is the
following :*

(a) He is the same giant as the Younger Edda (i. 144
ff. ) calls Utgard-Loke. The latter is a fire-giant, Loge's,
the fire's ruler (Younger Edda, 152), the cause of earth-
quakes (Younger Edda, 144), and skilled in producing
optical delusions. Fjalar's identity with Utgard-Loke is
proved by Harbardsljod, str. 26, where Thor, on his way
to Fjalar, meets with the same adventures as, according
to the Younger Edda, he met with on his way to Utgard-
Loke.

(b) He is the same giant as the one called Suttung.
The giant from whom Odin robs the skaldic mead, and
whose devoted daughter Gunlad he causes bitter sorrow,
is called in Havamal sometimes Fjalar and sometimes
Suttung (cp. strs. 13, 14, 104, 105).

*In Bragar&dur's pseudo- mythic account of the Skaldic mead (Younger
Edda, 216 ff.) the name Fjalarr also appears. In regard to the value of
this account, see the investigation in No. 89.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

(c) Fjalar is the son of the chief of the fire-giants,
Surtr, and dwells in the subterranean dales of the latter.
A full account of this in No. 89. Here it will suffice to
point out that when Odin flies out of Fjalar's dwelling
with the skaldic mead, it is "from Surt's deep dales" that
he "flying bears" the precious drink (liinn er $urts or
sokkdolum farmagnudr fljugandi bar, a strophe by
Eyvind, quoted in the Younger Edda, p. 242), and that
this drink while it remained with Fjalar was "the drink
of Surt's race" (Sylgr Surts attar, Fornms., iii. 3).

(d) Fjalar, with Froste, takes part in the attack of
Thjasse's kinsmen and the Skilfings from Svarin's Mound
against "the land of the clayey plains, to Jaravall" (V61-
uspa, 14, 15 ; see Nos. 28, 32). Thus he is allied with the
powers of frost, who are foes of the gods, and who seek
to conquer the Teutonic domain. The approach of the
fimbul-winter was also attended by an earthquake (see
Nos. 28, 81).

When, therefore, Voluspa makes Fjalar on his visit to
the sword-guardian in the Ironwood appear in the guise
of the red cock, then this is in harmony with Fjalar's
nature as a fire-giant and as a son of Surt.

Sat thar a haugi

oc slo haurpo

gygjar hirthir

gladr Egther.

Gol um hanom

i galgvithi

fagrraudr hani

sa er Fjalar heitir (Volusp., 41).

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The red cock has from time immemorial been the
symbol of fire as a destructive power.

That what Odin does against Fjalar — when he robs
him of the mead, which in the myth is the most precious
of all drinks, and when he deceived his daughter — is
calculated to awaken Fjalar's thirst for revenge and to
bring about a satisfaction sooner or later, lies in the very
spirit of Teutonic poetry and ethics, especially since,
Odin's act, though done from a good motive, was morally
reprehensible. What Fjalar's errand to Angerboda's
sword-guard was appears from the fact that when the
last war between the gods and their enemies is fought a
short time afterwards, Fjalar's father, the chief of the
fire-giants, Surt, is armed with the best of the mythical
weapons, the sword which had belonged to a valtivi, one
of the gods of Asgard (Volusp., 50), and which casts the
splendour of the sun upon the world. The famous sword
of the myth, that which Thjasse finished with a purpose
hostile to the gods (see No. 87 and elsewhere), the
sword concealed by Mimer (see Nos. 87, 98, 101), the
sword found by Svipdag (see Nos. 89, 101, 103), the
sword secured through him by Frey, the one given by Frey
to Gymer and Aurboda in exchange for Gerd, — this
sword is found again in the Ragnarok conflict, wielded by
Surt, and causes Frey's death (Voluspa), it having been
secured by Suit's son, Fjalar, in the Iron-wood from An-
gerboda's sword-guard.

Gulli keypta

Jeztu Gymis dottur

oc seldir thitt sva sverth;

226

Enn er Muspells synir

rida myrcvith yfir

veizta thu tha, vesall, hve thu vegr (Lokas., 42).

This passage not only tells us that Frey gave his sword
in exchange for Gerd to the parents of the giantess,
Gymer and Aurboda, but also gives us to understand that
this bargain shall cause his death in Ragnarok. This
bride-purchase is fully described in Skirnismal, in which
poem we learn that the gods most unwillingly part with
the safety which the incomparable sword secured to
Asgard. They yield in order to save the life of the
harvest-god, who was wasting away with longing and
anxiety, but not until the giants had refused to accept
other Asgard treasures, among them the precious ring
Draupner, which the Asa-father once laid on the pulseless
breast of his favourite son Balder. At the approach of
Ragnarok, Surt's son, Fjalar, goes to the Ironwood to
fetch for his father the sword by which Frey, its former
possessor, is to fall. The sword is then guarded by
Angerboda's shepherd, and consequently belongs to her.
In other words, the sword which Aurboda enticed Frey
to give her is now found in the possession of Angerboda.
This circumstance of itself is a very strong reason for
their identity. If there were no other evidence of their
identity than this, a sound application of methodology
would still bid us accept this identity rather than explain
the matter by inventing a new, nowhere-supported myth,
and thus making the sword pass from Aurboda to another
giantess.

When we now add the important fact in the disposition

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of this matter, that Aurboda's son-in-law, Frey, demands,
in behalf of a near kinsman, satisfaction from the Asas
when they had killed and burnt Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda,
then it seems to me that there can be no doubt in regard
to the identity of Aurboda and Angerboda, the less so,
since all that our mythic fragments have to tell us about
Gymer's wife confirms the theory that she is the same
person. Aurboda has, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda,
practised the arts of sorcery : she is one of the valas of the
evil giant world. This is told to us in a strophe by
the skald Refr, who calls her "Gymer's primeval cold
vala" (ursvol Gymis volva — Younger Edda, i. 326, 496).
She might be called "primeval cold" (ursvol} from the
fact that the fire was not able to pierce her heart and
change it to ashes, in spite of a .threefold burning. Under
all circumstances, the passage quoted informs us that
she is a vala.

But have our mythic fragments preserved any allusion
to show that Aurboda, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, ever
dwelt among the gods in Asgard? Asgard is a place
where giants are refused admittance. Exceptions from
this prohibition must have been very few, and the myths
must have given good reasons for them. We know in
regard to Loke's appearance in Asgard, that it is based
on a promise given him by the Asa-father in time's morn-
ing; and the promise was sealed with blood (Lokasenna,
9). If, now, this Aurboda, who, like Angerboda, is a
vala of giant race, and like Angerboda, is the owner of
Frey's sword, and, like Angerboda, is a kinswoman of the
Vans — if now this same Aurboda, in further likeness with

228

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Angerboda, was one of the certainly very few of the giant
class who was permitted to enter within the gates of
Asgard, then it must be admitted that this fact absolutely;
confirms their identity.

Aurboda did actually dwell in Asgard. Of this we are
assured by the poem "Fjolsvinsmal." There it is related
that when Svipdag came to the gates of Asgard to seek
and find Menglad-Freyja, who was destined to be his
wife (see Nos. 96, 97), he sees Menglad sitting on a
hill surrounded by goddesses, whose very names Eir,
Bjort, Blid, and Frid, tell us that they are goddesses of
lower or higher rank. Eir is an asynja of the healing art
(Younger Edda, i. 114). Bjort, Blid, and Frid are the
discs of splendour, benevolence, and beauty. They are
mighty beings, and can give aid in distress to all who
worship them (Fjolsv., 40). But in the midst of this
circle of discs, who surround Menglad, Svipdag also sees
Aurboda (Fjolsv., 38).

Above them Svipdag sees Mimer's tree — the world-tree
(see No. 97), spreading its all-embracing branches, on
which grow fruits which soothe kelisjukar konur and
lighten the entrance upon terrestrial life for the children
of men (Fjolsv., 22). Menglad-Freyja is, as we know,
the goddess of love and fertility, and it is Frigg's and her
vocation to dispose of these fruits for the purposes for
which they are intended.

The Volsungasaga has preserved a record concerning
these fruits, and concerning the giant-daughter who was
admitted to Asgard as a maid-servant of the goddesses.
A king and queen had long been married without getting

229

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

any children. They beseeched the gods for an heir.
Frigg heard their prayers and sent them in the guise of a
crow the daughter of the giant Hrimner, a giantess who
had been adopted in Asgard as Odin's "wish-may."
Hrimner's daughter took an apple with her, and when the
queen had eaten it, it was not long before she perceived
that her wish would come to pass (Volsungasaga, pp. 1,
2). Hrimner's daughter is, as we know, Gulveig-Heid.

Thus the question whether Aurboda ever dwelt in
Asgard is answered in the affirmative. We have discov-
ered her, though she is the daughter of a giant, in the
circle around Menglad-Preyja, where she has occupied a
subordinate position as maid-servant. At the same time
we have found that Gulveig-Heid has for some time
had an occupation in Asgard of precisely the same kind
as that which belongs to a dis serving under the goddess
of fertility. Thus the similarity between Aurboda and
Gulveig-Heid is not confined to the fact that they,
although giantesses, dwelt in Asgard, but they were
employed there in the same manner.

The demonstration that Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda is
identical with Aurboda may now be regarded as com-
plete. Of the one as of the other it is related that she
was a vala of giant-race, that she nevertheless dwelt for
some time in Asgard, and was there employed by Frigg or
Freyja in the service of fertility, and that she possessed
the sword, which had formerly belonged to Frey, and by
which Frey is to fall. Aurboda is Frey's mother-in-law,
consequently closely related to him; and it must have
been in behalf of a near relation that Frey and Njord

230

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

demanded satisfaction from the Asas when the latter slew
Gulveig-Heid. Under such circumstances it is utterly
impossible from a methodological standpoint to regard
them otherwise than identical. We must consider that
nearly all mythic characters are polyonomous, and that the
Teutonic mythology, particularly, on account of its
poetics, is burdened with a highly-developed polyonomy.

But of Gulveig-Heid's and Aurboda's identity there are
also other proofs which, for the sake of completeness, we
will not omit.

So far as the very names Gulveig and Aurboda are
concerned the one can serve as a paraphrase of the other.
The first part of the name Aurboda, the aur of many
significations may be referred to eyrir, pi. aurar, which
means precious metal, and is thought to be borrowed from
the Latin aurum (gold). Thus Gull and Aur corres-
pond. In the same manner veig in Gulveig can corres-
pond to boda in Aurboda. Veig means a fermenting
liquid. Boda has two significations. It can be the femi-
nine form of bodi, meaning fermenting water, froth,
foam. No other names compounded with boda occur in
Norse literature than Aurboda and Angrboda.

Ynglingasaga* (ch. 4) relates a tradition that Freyja
kendi fyrst med Asum seid, that Freyja was the first to
practise sorcery in Asgard. There is no doubt that the
statement is correct. For we have seen that Gulveig-
Heid, the sorceress and spreader of sorcery in antiquity,
succeeded in getting admission to Asgard, and that Aur-

*Ynglingasaga is the opening chapters of Snorre Sturlason's Heim-
skringla.

231

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

boda is mentioned as particularly belonging to the circle
oi serving discs who attended Freyja. As this giantess
was so zealous in spreading her evil arts among the inhab-
itants of Midgard, it would be strange if the myth did
not make her, after she had gained Freyja's confidence, try
to betray her into practising the same arts. Doubtless
Voluspa and Saxo have reference to Gulveig-Heid-Aur-
boda when they say that Freyja, through some treacherous
person among her attendants, was delivered into the hands
of the giants.

In his historical account relating how Freyja (Syritha)
was robbed from Asgard and came to the giants but was
afterwards saved from their power, Saxo (Hist., 331;
cp. No. 100) tells that a woman, who was secretly allied
with a giant, had succeeded in ingratiating herself in her
favour, and for some time performed the duties of a
maid-servant at her home; but this she did in order to
entice her in a cunning manner away from her safe home
to a place where the giant lay in ambush and carried her
away to the recesses of his mountain country. (Gigas
fceminam subornat, qua cum obtenta virginis familiari-
tate, ejus aliquamdiu pedissequam egisset, hanc tandem a
paternis procul pcnatibus, qutzsita callidius digressions,
reduxit; quam ipse mox irruens in arctiora montana crep-
idinis septa devexit.} Thus Saxo informs us that it
was a woman among Freyja's attendants who betrayed
her, and that this woman was allied with the giant world,
which is hostile to the gods, while she held a trusted
servant's place with the goddess. Aurboda is the only
woman connected with the giants in regard to whom our

232

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

mythic records inform us that she occupied such a position
with Freyja; and as Aurboda's character and part, played
in the epic of the myth, correspond with such an act of
treason, there is no reason for assuming the mere possi-
bility, that the betrayer of Freyja may have been some one
else, who is neither mentioned nor known.

With this it is important to compare Voluspa, 26, 27,
which not only mentions the fact that Freyja came into
the power of the giants through treachery, but also;
informs us how the treason was punished:

Tha gengo regin oil

A raukstola,

ginheilog god

oc um that gettuz

hverir hefdi lopt alt

levi blandit

etha ett iotuns

Oths mey gefna

thorr ein thar va

thrungin modi,

hann sialdan sitr

er hann slict um fregn.

These Voluspa lines stand in Codex Regius in imme-
diate connection with the above-quoted strophes which
speak of Gulveig-Heid and of the war caused by her
between the Asas and Vans. They inform us that the
gods assembled to hold a solemn counsel to find out "who
had filled all the air with evil," or "who had delivered
Freyja to the race of giants;" and that the person found
guilty was at once slain by Thor, who grew most angry.

Now if this person is Gulveig-Aurboda, then it follows

16 233

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

that she received her death-blow from Thor's hammer,
before the Asas made in common the unsuccessful attempt
to change her body into ashes. We also find elsewhere
in our mythic records that an exceedingly dangerous
woman met with precisely this fate. There she is called
Hyrrokin. A strophe by Thorbjorn Disarskald pre-
served in the Younger Edda, states that Hyrrokin was
one of the giantesses slain by Thor. But the very appel-
lation Hyrrokin, which must be an epithet of a giantess
known by some other more common name indicates that
some effort worthy of being remembered in the myth had
been made to burn her, but that the effort resulted in her
being smoked (rokt} rather than that she was burnt; for
the epithet Hyrrokin means the "fire-smoked." For
those familiar with the contents of the myth, this epithet
was regarded as plain enough to indicate who was meant.
If it is not, therefore, to be looked upon as an unhappy
and misleading epithet, it must refer to the thrice in vain
burnt Gulveig. All that we learn about Hyrrokin con-
firms her identity with Aurboda. In the symbolic-alle-
gorical work of art, which toward the close of the tenth
century decorated a hall at Hjardarholt, and of which I
shall give a fuller account elsewhere, the storm which
from the land side carried Balder's ship out on the sea
is represented by the giantess Hyrrokin. In the same
capacity of storm-giantess carrying sailors out upon the
ocean appears Gymer's wife, Aurboda, in a poem by Refr ;

Faerir bjorn, thar er bara
brestr, undinna festa,

234

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Opt i -iJEgis kjopta
ursvol Gymis volva.

"Gymer' s ancient-cold vala often carries the ship amid
breaking billows into the jaws of JEgir." Gymer, Aur-
boda's husband, represents in the physical interpretation
of the myth the east wind coming from the Ironwood.
From the other side of Eystrasalt (the Baltic) Gymer
sings his song (Ynglingasaga, 36) ; and the same gale
belongs to Aurboda, for ^Egir, into whose jaws she drives
the ships, is the great open western ocean. That Aurboda
represents the gale from the east finds its natural explana-
tion in her identity with Angerboda "the old," who dwells
in the Ironwood in the uttermost east, "Austr byr hin alld-
na i iarnvithi (Volusp.).

The result of the investigation is that Gullveig-Heidr,
Aurboda, and Angrboda are different names for the dif-
ferent hypostases of the thrice-born and thrice-burnt one,
and that Hyrrokin, "the fire-smoked," is an epithet com-
mon to all these hypostases.

36.
THE WORLD WAR (continued}. THE BREACH OF PEACE

BETWEEN ASAS AND VANS. ERIGG, SKADE, AND ULL
IN THE CONFLICT. THE SIEGE OE ASGARD. THE
VAEERELAMES. THE DEEENCE AND SURROUNDINGS
OE ASGARD. THE VICTORY OE THE VANS.

When the Asas had refused to give satisfaction for the
murder of Gulveig, and when Odin, by hurling his spear,
had indicated that the treaty of peace between him and the

235

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Vans was broken, the latter leave the assembly hall and
Asgard. This is evident from the fact that they after-
wards return to Asgard and attack the citadel of the Asa
clan. The gods are now divided into two hostile camps :
on the one side Odin and his allies, among .whom are
Heimdal (see Nos. 38, 39, 40), and Skade; on the other
Njord, Frigg (Saxo, Hist., 42-44), Frey, Ull (Saxo,
Hist,. 130, 131), and Freyja and her husband Svipdag,
besides all that clan of divinities who were not adopted in
Asgard, but belong to the race of Vans and dwell in
Vanaheim.

So far as Skade is concerned the breach between the
gods seems to have furnished her an opportunity of get-
ting a divorce from Njord, with whom she did not live
on good terms. According to statements found in the
myths, Thjasse's daughter and he were altogether too dif-
ferent in disposition to dwell in peace together. Saxo
(Hist., 53 ff.) and the Younger Edda (p. 94) have both
preserved the record of a song which describes their differ-
ent tastes as to home and surroundings. Skade loved
Thrymheim, the rocky home of her father Thjasse, on
whose snow-clad plains she was fond of running on skees
and of felling wild beasts with her arrows; but when
Njord had remained nine days and nine nights among
the mountains he was weary of the rocks and of the howl-
ing of wolves, and longed for the song of swans on the
sea-strand. But when Skade accompanied him thither
she could not long endure to be awakened every morning
by the shrieking of sea-fowls. In Grimnismal, 11, it is
said that Skade "now" occupies her father's "ancient

236

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

home" in Thrymheim, but Njord is not named there.
In a strophe by Thord Sjarekson (Younger Edda, 262)
we read that Skade never became devoted to the Vana-god
(nawia snotr una godbrudr Vani), and Eyvind Skalda-
spiller relates in Haley gjatal that there was a time when
Odin dwelt i Manheimum together with Skade, and begat
with her many sons. With Manheimar is meant that part
of the world which is inhabited by man; that is to say,
Midgard and the lower world, where are also found a
race of menskir menu (see Nos. 52, 53, 59, 63), and the
topographical counterpart of the word is Asgardr. Thus
it must have been after his banishment from Asgard,
while he was separated from Frigg and found refuge
somewhere in Manheimar, that Odin had Skade for his
wife. Her epithet in Grimnismal, skir brudr goda, also
seems to indicate that she had conjugal relations with more
than one of the gods.

While Odin was absent and deposed as ruler of the
world, Ull has occupied so important a position among
the ruling Vans that, according to the tradition preserved
in Saxo, they bestowed upon him the task and honour
which until that time had belonged to Odin (Dii . . .
Oiler um quendam non soluni in regni, sed etiam in divin-
itatis infulas subrogavere — Hist., 130) . This is explained
by the fact that Njord and Frey, though valtivar and
brave warriors when they are invoked, are in their very
nature gods of peace and promoters of wealth and agri-
culture, while Ull is by nature a warrior. He is a skilful
archer, excellent in a duel, and hefir Hermanns atgervi
(Younger Edda, i. 102). Also after the reconciliation

237

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

between the Asas and Vans, Thor's stepson Ull has held
a high position in Asgard, as is apparently corroborated
by Odin's words in Grimnismal, 41 (Ullar hylli ok allra
go da}.

From the mythic accounts in regard to the situation
and environment of Asgard we may conclude that the
siege by the Vans was no easy task. The home of the
Asas is surrounded by the atmospheric ocean, whose
strong currents make it difficult for the mythic horses to
swim to it (see Nos. 65, 93). The bridge Bifrost is not
therefore superfluous, but it is that connection between the
lower worlds and Asgard which the gods daily use, and
which must be captured by the enemy before the great
cordon which encloses the shining halls of the gods can
be attacked. The wall is built of "the limbs of Lerbri-
mer" (Fjolsv., 1), and constructed by its architect in
such a manner that it is a safe protection against moun-
tain-giants and frost-giants (Younger Edda, 134). In
the wall is a gate wondrously made by the artist-brothers
who are sons of "Solblinde" (Valgrind — Grimnism., 22;
thrymgjoll — Fjolsvimsm., 10). Few there are who
understand the lock of that gate, and if anybody brings it
out of its proper place in the wall-opening where it blocks
the way for those who have no right to enter, then the
gate itself becomes a chain for him who has attempted
such a thing (Porn er su grind, enn that fair vito, hor
hve er i Ids um lokin — Grimn., 22. Fjdturr fastr verdr
vid faranda hvern er hana hefr fra hlidi — Fjolsv., 10).

Outside of the very high Asgard cordon and around it
there flows a rapid river (see below), the moat of the

238

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

citadel. Over the eddies of the stream floats a dark, shin-
ing ignitible mist. If it is kindled it explodes in flames,
whose bickering tongues strike their victims with unerring
certainty. It is the vaferloge, "the bickering flame," "the
quick fire," celebrated in ancient songs — vafrlogi, vafrey-
di, skjotbrinni. It was this fire which the gods kindled
around Asgard when they saw Thjasse approaching in
eagle guise. In it their irreconcilable foe burnt his
pinions, and fell to the ground. "Haustlaung," Thjo-
dolf's poem, says that when Thjasse approached the
citadel of the gods "the gods raised the quick fire and
sharpened their javelins" — Hofu skjot; en skofu skopt;
ginnregin brinna. The "quick fire," skjot-brinni, is the
vaferloge*

The material of which the ignitible mist consists is
called "black terror-gleam." It is or odauccom; that is to
say, ofdauccom ognar Ijoma (Fafn., 40) (cp. myrckvan
vafrloga — Skirn., 8, 9; Fjolsv., 31). It is said to be
"wise," which implies that it consciously aims at him for
whose destruction it is kindled.

How a water could be conceived that evaporates a dark,
ignitible mist we find explained in Thorsdrapa. The
thunder-storm is the "storm of the vaferfire," and Thor
is the "ruler of the chariot of the vaferfire-storm" (vafr-
cyda hreggs hufstjori}. Thus the thunder-cloud con-
tains the water that evaporates a dark material for light-
ning. The dark metallic colour which is peculiar to the
thunder-cloud was regarded as coming from that very

"The author of Bragarwdur in the Younger Edda has understood this
passage to mean that the Asas, when they saw Thjasse approaching, carried
out a lot of shavings, which were kindled ( !).

239

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

material which is the "black terror-gleam" of which light-
ning is formed. When Thor splits the cloud he separates
the two component parts, the water and the vafermist ; the
former falls down as rain, the latter is ignited and rushes
away in quick, bickering, zigzag flames — the vaferfires.
That these are "wise" was a common Aryan belief. They
do not proceed blindly, but know their mark and never
miss it.

The river that foams around Asgard thus has its source
in the thunder-clouds ; not as we find them after they have
been split by Thor, but such as they are originally, swollen
with a celestial water that evaporates vafermist. All
waters — subterranean, terrestrial, and celestial — have
their source in that great subterranean fountain Hvergel-
mer. Thence they come and thither they return (Grimn.,
26; see Nos. 59, 63, 33). Hvergelmer's waters are
sucked up by the northern root of the world-tree; they
rise through its trunk, spread into its branches and
leaves, and evaporate from its crown into a water-tank
situated on the top of Asgard, Hikthyrnir, in Grimnismal,
str. 26, symbolised as a "stag"* who stands on the roof
of Odin's hall and out of whose horns the waters stream
down into Hvergelmer. Hikthyrnir is the great celestial
water-tank which gathers and lets out the thunder-cloud.
In this tank the Asgard river has its source, and hence
it consists not only of foaming water but also of ignitible

*In the same poem the elf-artist, Dainn, and the "dwarf-artist,
Dvalinn, are symbolised as stags, the wanderer Ratr (see below) as a
squirrel, the wolf-giant Grafvitner's sons as serpents, the bridge Bifrost as
a fish (see No. 93), &c. Fortunately for the comprehension of our mythic
records such symbolising is confined to a few strophes in the poem named,
and these strophes appear to have belonged originally to an independent song
which made a speciality of that sort of symbolism, and to have been incor
porated in Grimnismal in later times.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

vafermists. In its capacity of discharger of the thunder-
cloud, the tank is called Eikthyrnir, the oak-stinger1.
Oaks struck by lightning is no unusual occurrence. The
oak is, according to popular belief based on observation,
that tree which the lightning most frequently strikes.

But Asgard is not the only citadel which is surrounded
by vafermists. These are also found enveloping the home
where dwelt the storm-giant Gymer and the storm-giantess
Aurboda, the sorceress who knows all of Asgard's secrets,
at the time when Frey sent Skirner to ask for the hand
of their daughter Gerd. Epics which in their present
form date from Christian times make vaferflames burn
around castles, where goddesses, pricked by sleep-thorns,
are slumbering. This is a belief of a later age.

To get over or through the vaferflame is, according to
the myth, impossible for anyone who has not got a certain
mythical horse to ride — probably Sleipner, the eight-
footed steed of the Asa-father, which is the best of all
horses (Grimn., 44). The quality of this steed, which
enables it to bear its rider unscathed through the vafer-
flame, makes it indespensable when this obstacle is to be
overcome. When Skirner is to go on Prey's journey
of courtship to Gerd, he asks for that purposse mar thann
er mic um myrckvan beri visan vafrloga, and is allowed
to ride it on and for the journey (Skirn., 8, 9). This
horse must accordingly have been in the possession of the
Vans when they conquered Asgard, an assumption con-
firmed by what is to be stated below. (In the great epic
Sigurd's horse Grane is made to inherit the qualities of
this divine horse.)

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

On the outer side of the Asgard river, and directly
opposite the Asgard gate, lie projecting ramparts (for-
gardir) to protect the drawbridge, which from the opening
in the wall can be dropped down across the river (see
below). When Svipdag proceeded toward Menglad's
abode in Asgard, he first came to this forgardir (Fjols., i.
3). There he is hailed by the watch of the citadel, and
thence he gets a glimpse over the gate of all the glorious
things which are hid behind the high walls of the citadel.

Outside the river Asgard has fields with groves and
woods (Younger Edda, 136, 210).

Of the events of the wars waged around Asgard, the
mythic fragments, which the Icelandic records have pre-
served, give us but very little information, though they
must have been favourite themes for the heathen skaldic
art, which here had an opportunity of describing in a
characteristic manner all the gods involved, and of pic-
turing not only their various characters, but also their
various weapons, equipments, and horses. In regard to
the weapons of attack we must remember that Thor at
the outbreak of the conflict is deprived of the assistance
of his splendid hammer : it has been broken by Svipdag's
sword of victory (see Nos. 101, 103) — a point which it
was necessary for the myth to assume, otherwise the
Vans could hardly he represented as conquerors. Nor do
the Vans have the above-mentioned sword at their dis-
posal : it is already in the power of Gymer and Aurboda.
The irresistible weapons which in a purely mechanical
manner would have decided the issue of the war, were
disposed of in advance in order that the persons them-

242

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

selves, with their varied warlike qualities, might get to the
foreground and decide the fate of the conflict by heroism
or prudence, by prescient wisdom or by blind daring. In
this war the Vans have particularly distinguished them-
selves by wise and well calculated strategies. This we
learn from Voluspa, where it makes the final victors con-
quer Asgard through vigspa, that is, foreknowledge ap-
plied to warlike ends (str. 26). The Asas, as we might
expect from Odin's brave sons, have especially distin-
guished themselves by their strength and courage. A rec-
ord of this is found in the words of Thorbjorn Disarskald
(Younger Edda, 256).

Thorr hefir Yggs med arum
Asgard of threk vardan.

"Thor with Odin's clan-men defended Asgard with
indomitable courage."

But in number they must have been far inferior to
their foes. Simply the circumstance that Odin and his
men had to confine themselves to the defence of Asgard
shows that nearly all other divinities of various ranks
had allied themselves with his enemies. The ruler of
the lower world (Mimer) and Honer are the only ones
of whom it can be said that they remained faithful to
Odin; and if we can trust the Heimskringla tradition,
which is related as history and greatly corrupted, then
Mimer lost his life in an effort at mediation between the
contending gods, while he and Honer were held as host-
ages among the Vans (Ynglingas., ch. 4).

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Asgard was at length conquered. Voluspa, str. 25,
relates the final catastrophe :

brotin var bordvegr
borgar asa
knatto vanir vigspa
vollo sporna.

Broken was the bulwark

of the asaburg;

Through warlike prudence were the Vans able

its fields to tread.

Voluspa's words seem to indicate that the Vans took
Asgard by strategy; and this is confirmed by a source
which shall be quoted below. But to carry out the plan
which chiefly involved the finding of means for crossing
the vaferflames kindled around the citadel and for open-
ing the gates of Asgard, not only cunning but also
courage was required. The myth has given the honour
of this undertaking to Njord, the clan-chief of the Vans
and the commander of their forces. This is clear from
the above-quoted passage: Njordr klauf Herjans hurdir
— "Njord broke Odin's doors open," which should be
compared with the poetical paraphrase for battle-axe:
Gauts megin-hurdar galli — "the destroyer of Odin's
great gate," — a paraphrase that indicates that Njord
burst the Asgard gate open with the battle-axe. The con-
clusion which must be drawn from these utterances is con-
firmed by an account with which the sixth book of Saxo
begins, and which doubtless is a fragment of the myth
concerning the conquest of Asgard by the Vans corrupted
and told as history.

244

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The event is transferred by Saxo to the reign of King
Fridlevus II. It should here be remarked that every
important statement made by Saxo about this Fridlevus,
on a closer examination, is found to be taken from the
myth concerning Njord.

There were at that time twelve brothers, says Saxo,
distinguished for 'courage, strength, and fine physical
appearance. They were "widely celebrated for gigantic
triumphs." To their trophies and riches many peoples
had paid tribute. But the source from which Saxo
received information in regard to Fridlevus' conflict with
them did not mention more than seven of these twelve,
and of these seven Saxo gives the names. They are called
Bjorn, Asbjorn, Gunbjorn, &c. In all the names is found
the epithet of the Asa-god Bjorn.

The brothers had had allies, says Saxo further, but at
the point when the story begins they had been abandoned
by them, and on this account they had been obliged to con-
fine themselves on an island surrounded by a most violent
stream which fell from the brow of a very high rock, and
the whole surface of which glittered with raging foam.
The island was fortified by a very high wall (prcealtum
vallum), in which was built a remarkable gate. It was
so built that the hinges were placed near the ground
between the sides of the opening in the wall, so that the
gate turning thereon could, by a movement regulated
by chains, be lowered and form a bridge across the
stream.

Thus the gate is, at the same time, a drawbridge of that
kind with which the Germans becameacquaintedduringthe

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

war with the Romans already before the time of Tacitus
(cp. AnnaL, iv. 51, with iv. 47). Within the fortification
there was a most strange horse, and also a remarkably
strong dog, which formerly had watched the herds of
the giant Offotes. The horse was celebrated for his size
and speed, and it was the only steed with which it was
possible for a rider to cross the raging stream around the
island fortress.

King Fridlevus now surrounds this citadel with his
forces. These are arrayed at some distance from the
citadel, and in the beginning nothing else is gained by the
siege than that the besieged are hindered from making
sallies into the surrounding territory. The citadel cannot
be taken unless the above-mentioned horse gets into the
power of Fridlevus. Bjorn, the owner of the horse,
makes sorties from the citadel, and in so doing he did
not always take sufficient care, for on one occasion when
he was on the outer side of the stream, and had gone
some distance away from his horse, he fell into an
ambush laid by Fridlevus. He saved himself by rushing
headlong over the bridge, which was drawn up behind
him, but the precious horse became Fridlevus' booty.
This was of course a severe loss to the besieged, and must
have diminished considerably their sense of security.
Meanwhile, Fridlevus was able to manage the matter in
such a way that the accident served rather to lull them into
increased safety. During the following night the brothers
found their horse, safe and sound, back on the island.
Hence it must have swum back across the stream. And
when it was afterwards found that the dead body of a

246

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

man, clad in the shining robes of Fridlevus, floated on the
eddies of the stream, they took it for granted that Fridle-
vus himself had perished in the stream.

But the real facts were as follows : Fridlevus, attended
by a single companion, had in the night ridden from his
camp to the river. There his companion's life had to be
sacrificed, in order that the king's plan might be carried
out. Fridlevus exchanged clothes with the dead man,
who, in the king's splendid robes, was cast into the
stream. Then Fridlevus gave spur to the steed which
he had captured, and rode through the eddies of the
stream. Having passed this obstacle safely, he set the
horse at liberty, climbed on a ladder over the wall, stole
into the hall where the brothers were wont to assemble,
hid himself under a projection over the hall door, listened
to their conversation, saw them go out to reconnoitre the
island, and saw them return, secure in the conviction that
there was no danger at hand. Then he went to the
gate and let it fall across the stream. His forces had,
during the night, advanced toward the citadel, and when
they saw the drawbridge down and the way open, they
stormed the fortress and captured it.

The fact that we here have a transformation of the
myth, telling how Njord at the head of the Vans conquered
Asgard, is evident from the following circumstances :

(a) The conqueror is Fridlevus. The most of what
Saxo relates about this Fridlevus is, as stated, taken from
the myth about Njord, and told as history.

(&) The brothers were, according to Saxo, originally
twelve, which is the well-established number of Odin's

247

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

clansmen: his sons, and the adopted Asa-gods. But
when the siege in question takes place, Saxo finds in his
source only seven of the twelve mentioned as enclosed
in the citadel beseiged by Fridlevus. The reason for
the diminishing of the number is to be found in the fact
that the adopted gods — Njord, Frey, and Ull — had left
Asgard, and are in fact identical with the leaders of the
besiegers. If we also deduct Balder and Hodr, who, at
the time of the event, are dead and removed to the lower
world, then we have left the number seven given. The
name Bjorn, which they all bear, is an Asa epithet
(Younger Edda, i. 553). The brothers have formerly
had allies, but these have abandoned them (deficientibus
a se sociis) , and it is on this account that they must con-
fine themselves within their citadel. The Asas have had
the Vans and other divine powers as allies, but these aban-
don them, and the Asas must defend themselves on their
own fortified ground.

(c) Before this the brothers have made themselves
celebrated for extraordinary exploits, and have enjoyed
a no less extraordinary power. They shone on account
of their giganteis triumphis — an ambiguous expression
which alludes to the mythic sagas concerning the victories
of the Asas over Jotunheim's giants (gigantes), and
nations have submitted to them as victors, and enriched
them with treasures (trophceis gentium celebres, spoliis
locupletes).

(d) The island on which they are confined is fortified,
like the Asa citadel, by an immensely high wall (praaltum
vallum), and is surrounded by a stream which is impass-

248

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

able unless one possesses a horse which is found among
the brothers. Asgard is surrounded by a river belt
covered with vaferflames, which cannot be crossed unless
one has that single steed which um myrckvan beri visan
vafrloga, and this belongs to the Asas.

(e) The stream which roars around the fortress of the
brothers comes ex summis montium cacuminibus. The
Asgard stream comes from the collector of the thunder-
cloud, Eikthynir, who stands on the summit of the world
of the gods. The kindled vaferflames, which did not suit
an historical narration, are explained by Saxo to be a
spumeus candor, a foaming whiteness, a shining froth,
which in uniform, eddying billows everywhere whirl on
the surface of the stream, (tota alvei tractu undis uniform-
iter turbidatis spumeus ubique candor exuberaf).

(/) The only horse which was able to run through the
shining and eddying foam is clearly one of the mythic
horses. It is named along with another prodigy from the
animal kingdom of mythology, viz., the terrible dog of
the giant Offotes. Whether this is a reminiscence of
Fenrir which was kept for some time in Asgard, or of
Odin's wolf-dog Preki, or of some other saga-animal of
that sort, we will not now decide.

(g) Just as Asgard has an artfully contrived gate, so
has also the citadel of the brothers. Saxo's description of
the gate implies that any person who does not know its
character as a drawbridge, but lays violent hands on the
mechanism which holds it in an upright position, falls,
and is crushed under it. This explains the words of Fjols-
vinnsmal about the gate to that citadel, within which

17 249

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Freyja-Menglad dwells : Fjoturr fastr verdr vid faranda
hvern, er hana hefr frd hlidi.

(/&•) In the myth, it is Njord himself who removes the
obstacle, "Odin's great gate," placed in his way. In
Saxo's account, it is Fridlevus himself who accomplishes
the same exploit.

(i) In Saxo's narration occurs an improbability, which
is explained by the fact that he has transformed a myth
into history. When Fridlevus is safe across the stream,
he raises a ladder against the wall and climbs up on to
it. Whence did he get this ladder, which must have been
colossal, since the wall he got over in this manner is
said to be prcealtum? Could he have taken it with him
on the horse's back? Or did the besieged themselves
place it against the wall as a friendly aid to the foe, who
was already in possession of the only means for crossing
the stream? Both assumptions are alike improbable.
Saxo had to take recourse to a ladder, for he could not,
without damaging the "historical" character of his story,
repeat the myth's probable description of the event. The
horse which can gallop through the bickering flame can
also leap over the highest wall. Sleipner's ability in this
direction is demonstrated in the account of how it, with
Hermod in the saddle, leaps over the wall to Balder's high
hall in the lower world (Younger Edda, 178). The
impassibility of the Asgard wall is limited to mountain-
giants and frost-giants; for a god riding Odin's horse
the wall was no obstacle. No doubt the myth has also
stated that the Asas, after Njord had leaped over the wall
and sought out the above-mentioned place of concealment,

250

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

found within the wall their precious horse again, which
lately had become the booty of the enemy. And where
else should they have found it, if we regard the stream
with the bickering flames as breaking against the very
foot of the wall ?

Finally, it should be added, that our myths tell of no
other siege than the one Asgard was subjected to by the
Vans. If other sieges have been mentioned, they cannot
have been of the same importance as this one, and conse-
quently they could not so easily have left traces in the
mythic traditions adapted to history or heroic poetry ; nor
could a historicised account of a mythic siege which did
not concern Asgard have preserved the points here
pointed out, which are in harmony with the story of the
Asgard siege.

When the citadel of the gods is captured, the gods are,
as we have seen, once more in possession of the steed,
which, judging from its qualities, must be Sleipner. Thus
Odin has the means of escaping from the enemy after all
resistance has proved impossible. Thor has his thunder-
ing car, which, according to the Younger Edda, has room
for several besides the owner, and the other Asas have
splendid horses (Grimnism., Younger Edda), even though
they are not equal to that of their father. The Asas
give up their throne of power, and the Vans now assume
the rule of the world.

251

37.
THE WORLD WAR (continued}. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF

THE CONFLICT FROM A RELIGIOUS-RITUAL STAND-
POINT.

In regard to the significance of the change of adminis-
tration in the world of gods, Saxo has preserved a tradi-
tion which is of no small interest. The circumstance that
Odin and his sons had to surrender the reign of the
world did not imply that mankind should abandon their
faith in the old gods and accept a new religion. Hitherto
the Asas and Vans had been worshipped in common.
Now, when Odin was deposed, his name, honoured by
the nations, was not to be obliterated. The name was
given to Ull, and, as if he really were Odin, he was to
receive the sacrifices and prayers that hitherto had been
addressed to the banished one (Hist., 130). The ancient
faith was to be maintained, and the shift involved nothing
but the person ; there was no change of religion. But in
connection with this information, we also learn, from
another statement in Saxo, that the myth concerning the
war between Asas and Vans was connected with tradi-
tions concerning a conflict between various views among
the believers in the Teutonic religion concerning offerings
and prayers. The one view was more ritual, and
demanded more attention paid to sacrifices. This view
seems to have gotten the upper hand after the banishment
of Odin. It was claimed that sacrifices and hymns
addressed at the same time to several or all of the gods,
did not have the efficacy of pacifying and reconciling

252

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

angry deities, but that to each one of the gods should be
given a separate sacrificial service (Saxo, Hist., 43).
The result oi this was, of course, an increase of sacrifices
and a more highly-developed ritual, which from its very
nature might have produced among the Teutons the same
hierarchy as resulted from an excess of sacrifices among
their Aryan-Asiatic kinsmen. The correctness of Saxo's
statement is fully confirmed by strophe 145 in Havamal,
which advocates the opposite and incomparably more
moderate view in regard to sacrifices. This view came,
according to the strophe, from Odin's own lips. He is
made to proclaim it to the people "after his return to his
ancient power."

Betra er obethit

en se ofblothit

ey ser til gildis giof;

betra er osennt

enn se ofsoit.

Sva thundr um reist

fyr thiotha rauc,

thar hann up um reis

er hann aptr of kom.

The expression, thar hann up um reis, er hann apter of
kom, refers to the fact that Odin had for some time been
deposed from the administration of the world, but had
returned, and that he then proclaimed to the people the
view in regard to the real value of prayers and sacrifices
which is laid down in the strophe. Hence it follows that
before Odin returned to his throne another more exacting
doctrine in regard to sacrifices had, according to the myth,
secured prevalence. This is precisely what Saxo tells us.

253

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

It is difficult to repress the question whether an historical
reminiscence is not concealed in these statements. May it
not be the record of conflicting views within the Teutonic
religion — views represented in the myth by the Vana-gods
on the one side and the Asas on the other? The Vana
views, I take it, represented tendencies which had they
been victorious, would have resulted in hierarchy, while
the Asa doctrine represented the tendencies of the believers
in the time-honoured Aryan custom of those who main-
tained the priestly authority of the father of the family,
and who defended the efficacy of the simple hymns and
sacrifices which from time out of mind had been addressed
to several or all of the gods in common. That the ques-
tion really has existed among the Teutonic peoples, at least
as a subject for reflection, spontaneously suggests itself
in the myth alluded to above. This myth has discussed
the question, and decided it in precisely the same manner
as history has decided it among the Teutonic races, among
whom priestcraft and ritualism have held a far less
important position than among their western kinsmen, the
Celts, and their eastern kinsmen, the Iranians and Hin-
doos. That prayers on account of their length, or sacrifices
on account of their abundance, should give evidence of
greater piety and fear of God, and should be able to
secure a more ready hearing, is a doctrine which Odin
himself rejects in the strophe above cited. He under-
stands human nature, and knows that when a man brings
abundant sacrifices he has the selfish purpose in view of
prevailing on the gods to give a more abundant reward —
a purpose prompted by selfishness, not by piety.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

38.

THE WORLD WAR (continued). THE WAR IN MIDGARD
RETWEEN HALEDAN'S SONS. GROA'S SONS AGAINST
ALVEIG'S. LORE'S APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE.
HADDING'S YOUTHFUL ADVENTURES.

The conflict between the gods has its counterpart in,
and is connected with, a war between all the Teutonic
races, and the latter is again a continuation of the feud
between Half dan and Svipdag. The Teutonic race comes
to the front fighting under three race-representatives — (1)
Yngve- Svipdag, the son of Orvandel and Groa; (2) Gud-
horm, the son of Halfdan and Groa, consequently Svip-
dag's half-brother; (3) Hadding, the son of Halfdan
and Alveig (in Saxo called Signe, daughter of Sumbel),
consequently Gudhorm's half-brother.

The ruling Vans favour Svipdag, who is Freyja's hus-
band and Frey's brother-in-law. The banished Asas
support Hadding from their place of refuge. The conflict
between the gods and the war between Halfdan's successor
and heir are woven together. It is like the Trojan war,
where the gods, divided into parties, assist the Trojans
or assist the Danai. Odin, Thor, and Heimdal interfere,
as we shall see, to protect Hadding. This is their duty
as kinsmen ; for Heimdal, having assumed human nature,
was the lad with the sheaf of grain who came to the
primeval country and became the father of Borgar, who
begat the son Halfdan. Thor was Halfdan's associate
father ; hence he too had duties of kinship toward Had-
ding and Gudhorm, Halfdan's sons. The gods, on the

255

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

other hand, that favour Svipdag are, in Hadding' s eyes,
foes, and Hadding long refuses to propitiate Frey by a
demanded sacrifice (Saxo, Hist., 49, 50).

This war, simultaneously waged between the clans of
the gods on the one hand, and between the Teutonic tribes
on the other, is what the seeress in Voluspa calls "the first
great war in the world." She not only gives an account
of its outbreak and events among the gods, but also indi-
cates that it was waged on the earth, Then —

sa hon valkyrior saw she valkyries

vitt um komnar far travelled

gaurvar at rida equipped to ride

til Godthjodar to Goththjod.

Goththjod is the Teutonic people and the Teutonic
country.

When Svipdag had slain Halfdan, and when the Asas
'were expelled, the sons of the Teutonic patriarch were
in danger of falling into the power of Svipdag. Thor
interested himself in their behalf, and brought Gudhorm
and Hadding to Jotunheim, where he concealed them
with the giants Hafle and Vagnhofde — Gudhorm in
Hafle's rocky gard and Hadding in Vagnhofde's. In
Saxo, who relates this story, the Asa-god Thor appears
partly as Thor deus and Thoro pugil, Halfdan's protector,
whom Saxo himself identifies as the god Thor (Hist.,
324), and partly as Brae and Brache, which name Saxo
formed from Thor's epithet, Asa-Bragr. It is by the name
Brache that Thor appears as the protector of Halfdan's
sons. The giants Hafle and Vagnhofde dwell, according
to Saxo, in "Svetia" probably, since Jotunheim, the north-

256

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ernmost Sweden, and the most distant east were called
Svithlod hinn kalda.*

Svipdag waged war against Halfdan, since it was his
duty to avenge the disgrace of his mother Groa, and also
that of his mother's father, and, as shall be shown later,
the death of his father Orvandel (see Nos 108, 109).
The revenge for bloodshed was sacred in the Teutonic
world, and this duty he performed when he with his irre-
sistible sword felled his stepfather. But thereby the duty
of revenge for bloodshed was transferred to Halfdan's
sons — less to Gudhorm, who is himself a son of Groa,
but with all its weight to Hadding, the son of Alveig, and
it is his bounden duty to bring about Svipdag's death,
since Svipdag had slain Halfdan. Connecting itself with
Halfdan's robbery of Groa, the goddess of growth, the
red thread of revenge for bloodshed extends throughout
the great hero-saga of Teutonic mythology.

Svipdag makes an effort to cut the thread. He offers
Gudhorm and Hadding peace and friendship, and pro-
mises them kingship among the tribes subject to him.
Groa's son, Gudhorm, accepts the offer, and Svipdag
makes him ruler of the Danes ; but Hadding sends answer
that he prefers to avenge his father's death to accepting
favours from an enemy (Saxo, Hist., 35, 36).

Svipdag's offer of peace and reconciliation is in har-
mony, if not with his own nature, at least with that of his
kinsmen, the reigning Vans. If the offer to Hadding had

*Filii Gram, Guthormus et Hadingus, quorum alterum Gro, alterum
Signe enixa est, Svipdagero Daniam obtinente, per educatorem suum Brache
nave Svetiam deportati, Vagnophto et Haphlio gigantibus non solum alendi,
verum etiam defensandi traduntur (Saxo Hist., 34).

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

been accepted, we might have looked for peace in the
world. Now the future is threatened with the devasta-
tions of war, and the bloody thread of revenge shall con-
tinue to be spun if Svipdag does not prevent it by over-
powering Hadding. The myth may have contained much
information about the efforts of the one camp to capture
him and about contrivances of the other to frustrate these
efforts. Saxo has preserved a partial record thereof.
Among those who plot against Hadding is also Loke
(Lokerus — Saxo, Hist., 40, 41),* the banished ally of
Aurboda. His purpose is doubtless to get into the favour
of the reigning Vans. Hadding is no longer safe in
Vagnhofde's mountain home. The lad is exposed to
Loke's snares. From one of these he is saved by the
Asa-father himself. There came, says Saxo, on this
occasion a rider to Hadding. He resembled a very aged
man, one of whose eyes was lost (grandcevus quidam
alter o orbus oculo). He placed Hadding in front of him-
self on the horse, wrapped his mantle about him, and rode
away. The lad became curious and wanted to see whither
they were going. Through a hole in the mantle he got
an opportunity of looking down, and found to his aston-
ishment and fright that land and sea were far below the
hoofs of the steed. The rider must have noticed his
fright, for he forbade him to look out any more.

The rider, the one-eyed old man, is Odin, and the horse
is Sleipner, rescued from the captured Asgard. The

*The form Lofci is also duplicated by the form Lofcr. The latter is
preserved in the sense of "effeminated man," found in myths concerning
Loke. Compare the phrase "veykr Lokr" with "hinn veyki Lofci."

258

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

place to which the lad is carried by Odin is the place of
refuge secured by the Asas during their exile i Man-
heimum. In perfect harmony with the myths, Saxo
refers Odin's exile to the time preceding Hadding's
juvenile adventures, and makes Odin's return to power
simultaneous with Hadding's great victory over his
enemies (Hist., 42-44). Saxo has also found in his
sources that sword-slain men, whom Odin chooses during
"the first great war in the world," cannot come to Valhal.
The reason for this is that Odin is not at that time the
ruler there. They have dwelling-places and plains for
their warlike amusements appointed in the lower world
(Hist., 51).

The regions which, according to Saxo, are the scenes of
Hadding's juvenile adventures lie on the other side of
the Baltic down toward the Black Sea. He is associated
with "Curetians" and "Hellespontians," doubtless for the
reason that the myth has referred those adventures to the
far east.

The one-eyed old man is endowed with wonderful pow-
ers. When he landed with the lad at his home, he sang over
him prophetic incantations to protect him (Hist., 40),
and gave him a drink of the "most splendid sort," which
produced in Hadding enormous physical strength, and
particularly made him able to free himself from bonds
and chains. (Compare Havamal, str. 149, concerning
Odin's freeing incantations by which "fetters spring from
the feet and chains from the hands.") A comparison
with other passages, which I shall discuss later, shows
that the potion of which the old man is lord contains

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

something which is called "Leifner's flames," and that
he who has been permitted to drink it, and over whom
freeing incantations have simultaneously been sung, is
able with his warm breath to free himself from every
fetter which has been put on his enchanted limbs (see
Nos. 43, 96, 103).

The old man predicts that Hadding will soon have an
opportunity of testing the strength with which the drink
and the magic songs have endowed him. And the
prophecy is fulfilled. Hadding falls into the power of
Loke. He chains him and threatens to expose him as
food for a wild beast — in Saxo a lion, in the myth pre-
sumably some one of the wolf or serpent prodigies that
are Loke's offspring. But when his guards are put to
sleep by Odin's magic song, though Odin is far away,
Hadding bursts his bonds, slays the beast, and eats, in
obedience to Odin's instructions, its heart. (The saga
of Sigurd Fafnersbane has copied this feature. Sigurd
eats the heart of the dragon Fafner and gets wisdom
thereby. )

Thus Hadding has become a powerful hero, and his
task to make war on Svipdag, to revenge on him his
father's death, and to recover the share in the rulership
of the Teutons which Halfdan had possessed, now lies
before him as the goal he is to reach.

Hadding leaves Vagnhofde's home. The latter's
daughter, Hardgrep, who had fallen in love with the
youth, accompanies him. When we next find Hadding
he is at the head of an army. That this consisted of the
tribes of Eastern Teutondom is confirmed by documents

260

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

which I shall hereafter quote; but it also follows from
Saxo's narrative, although he has referred the war to
narrower limits than were given to it in the myth, since
he, constructing a Danish history from mythic tradi-
tions, has his eyes fixed chiefly on Denmark. Over the
Scandian tribes and the Danes rule, according to Saxo's
own statement, Svipdag, and as his tributary king in
Denmark his half-brother Gudhorm. Saxo also is aware
that the Saxons, the Teutonic tribes of the German low-
lands, on one occasion were the allies of Svipdag (Hist.,
34). From these parts of Teutondom did not come
Hadding's friends, but his enemies; and when we add
that the first battle which Saxo mentions in this war was
fought among the Curetians east of the Baltic, then it is
clear that Saxo, too, like the other records to which I
am coming later, has conceived the forces under Had-
ding's banner as having been gathered in the East. From
this it is evident that the war is one between the tribes
of North Teutondom, led by Svipdag and supported by
the Vans on the one side, and the tribes of East Teuton-
dom, led by Hadding and supported by the Asas on the
other. But the tribes of the western Teutonic continent
have also taken part in the first great war of mankind.
Gudhorm, whom Saxo makes a tributary king in Yngve-
Svipdag's most southern domain, Denmark, has in the
mythic traditions had a much greater empire, and has
ruled over the tribes of Western and Southern Teuton-
dom, as shall be shown hereafter.

261

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

39.
THE WORLD WAR (continued'). THE POSITION OF THE

DIVINE CLANS TO THE WARRIORS.

The circumstance that the different divine clans had
their favourites in the different camps gives the war a
peculiar character. The armies see before a battle super-
natural forms contending with each other in the star-
light, and recognize in them their divine friends and oppo-
nents (Hist., 48). The elements are conjured on one
and the other side for the good or harm of the contend-
ing brother-tribes. When fog and pouring rain sud-
denly darken the sky and fall upon Hadding's forces
from that side where the fylkings of the North are ar-
rayed, then the one-eyed old man comes to their rescue
and calls forth dark masses of clouds from the other side,
which force back the rain-clouds and the fog (Hist., 53).
In these cloud-masses we must recognize the presence of
the thundering Thor, the son of the one-eyed old man.

Giants also take part in the conflict. Vagnhofde and
Hardgrep, the latter in a man's attire, contend on the
side of the foster-son and the beloved Hadding (Hist.,
45, 38). From Icelandic records we learn that Hafle
and the giantesses Fenja and Menja fight under Gud-
horm's banners. In the Grottesong (14, 15) these
maids sing:

En vit sithan
a Svidiothu
framvisar tvoer
i folk stigum;
beiddum biornu,

262

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

en brutum skioldu
gengum igegnum
graserkiat lit.
Steyptom stilli,
studdum annan,
veittum gothum
Guthormi lid.

That the giant Hafle fought on the side of Gudhorm
is probable from the fact that he is his foster-father, and
it is confirmed by the fact that Thor paraphrased (Grett,
30) is called fangirinr Hafla, "he who wrestled with
Hafle." Since Thor and Hafle formerly were friends —
else the former would not have trusted Gudhorm to the
care of the latter — their appearance afterwards as foes
can hardly be explained otherwise than by the war be-
tween Thor's protege Hadding and Hafle's foster-son
Gudhorm. And as Hadding's foster-father, the giant
Vagnhofde, faithfully supports the young chief whose
childhood he protected, then the myth could scarcely avoid
giving a similar part to the giant Hafle, and thus make
the foster-fathers, like the foster-sons, contend with each
other. The heroic poems are fond of parallels of this
kind.

When Svipdag learns that Hadding has suddenly made
his appearance in the East, and gathered its tribes around
him for a war with Gudhorm, he descends from Asgard
and reveals himself in the primeval Teutonic country on
the Scandian peninsula, and requests its tribes to join
the Danes and raise the banner of war against Halfdan's
and Alveig's son, who, at the head of the eastern Teu-
tons, is marching against their half-brother Gudhorm.

263

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

The friends of both parties among the gods, men and
giants, hasten to attach themselves to the cause which
they have espoused as their own, and Vagnhofde among
the rest abandons his rocky home to fight by the side of
his foster-son and daughter.

This mythic situation is described in a hitherto unex-
plained strophe in the Old English song concerning the
names of the letters in the runic alphabet. In regard to
the rune which answers to / there is added the following
lines :

Ing vas cerest mid Eastdenum
geseven secgum od he siddan east
ofer vasg gevat. Vsen sefter ran;
thus Heardingas thone hale nemdon.

"Yngve (Inge) was first seen among the East-Danemen.
Then he betook himself eastward over the sea.
Vagn hastened to follow:
Thus the Heardings called this hero."

The Heardings are the Haddings — that is to say, Had-
ding himself, the kinsmen and friends who embraced his
cause, and the Teutonic tribes who recognised him as
their chief. The Norse Haddingr is to the Anglo-Saxon
Hear ding as the Norse haddr to the Anglo-Saxon heard.
Vigfusson, and before him J. Grimm, have already iden-
tified these forms.

Ing is Yngve-Svipdag, who, when he left Asgard,
"was first seen among the East-Danemen." He calls
Swedes and Danes to arms against Hadding's tribes.
The Anglo-Saxon strophe confirms the fact that they
dwell in the East, separated by a sea from the Scandian

264

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tribes. Ing, with his warriors, "betakes himself east-
ward over the sea" to attack them. Thus the armies of
the Swedes and Danes go by sea to the seat of war.
What the authorities of Tacitus heard among the con-
tinental Teutons about the mighty fleets of the Swedes
may be founded on the heroic songs about the first great
war not less than on fact. As the army which was to
cross the Baltic must be regarded as immensely large, so
the myth, too, has represented the ships of the Swedes as
numerous, and in part as of immense size. A confused
record from the songs about the expedition of Svipdag
and his friends against the East Teutons, found in Ice-
landic tradition, occurs in Fornald, pp. 406-407, where
a ship called Gnod, and capable of carrying 3000 men,
is mentioned as belonging to a King Asmund. Odin did
not want this monstrous ship to reach its destination, but
sank it, so it is said, in the Lesso seaway, with all its
men and contents. The Asmund who is known in the
heroic sagas of heathen times is a son of Svipdag and a
king among the Sviones (Saxo, Hist., 44). According
to Saxo, he has given brilliant proofs of his bravery in
the war against Hadding, and fallen by the weapons of
Vagnhofde and Hadding. That Odin in the Icelandic
tradition appears as his enemy thus corresponds with the
myth. The same Asmund may, as Gisle Brynjulfsson
has assumed, be meant in Grimnersmal (49), where we
learn that Odin, concealing himself under the name Jalk,
once visited Asmund.

The hero Vagn, whom "the Haddings so called," is
Hadding's foster-father, Vagnhofde. As the word

18 265

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

htifdi constitutes the second part of a mythic name, the
compound form is a synonym of that name which forms
the first part of the composition. Thus Svarthofdi is
identical with Svartr, Surtr. In Hyndluljod, 33, all the
mythical sorcerers (seidberendr) are said to be sprung
from Svarthofdi. In this connection we must first of all
think of Fjalar, who is the greatest sorcerer in mythol-
ogy. The story about Thor's, Thjalfe's, and Loke's
visit to him is a chain of delusions of sight and hearing
called forth by Fjalar, so that the Asa-god and his com-
panions always mistake things for something else than
they are. Fjalar is a son of Surtr (see No. 89). Thus
the greatest agent of sorcery is descended from Surtr,
Svartr, and, as Hyndluljod states that all magicians of
mythology have come of some Svarthofdi, Svartr and
Svarthofdi must be identical. And so it is with Vagn
and Vagnhdfdi; they are different names for the same
person.

When the Anglo-Saxon rune-strophe says that Vang
"made haste to follow" after Ing had gone across the
sea, then this is to be compared with Saxo's statement
(Hist., 45), where it is said that Hadding in a battle was
in greatest peril of losing his life, but was saved by the
sudden and miraculous landing of Vagnhofde, who came
to the battle-field and placed himself at his side.
The Scandian fylkings advanced against Hadding's; and
Svipdag's son Asmund, who fought at the head of his
men, forced his way forward against Hadding himself,
with his shield thrown on his back, and with both his
hands on the hilt of a sword which felled all before it.

266

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Then Hadding invoked the gods who were the friends
of himself and his race (Hadingo familiarium sibi numi-
num prcesidia postulante subito Vagnophtus partibus ejus
propugnaturus advehitur}, and then Vagnhofde is
brought (advehitw) by some one of these gods to the
battle-field and suddenly stands by Hadding's side,
swinging a crooked sword* against Asmund, while Had-
ding hurls his spear against him. This statement in
Saxo corresponds with and explains the old English
strophe's reference to a quick journey which Vagn made
to help Heardingas against Ing, and it is also illustrated
by a passage in Grimnismal, 49, which, in connection
with Odin's appearance at Asmund's, tells that he once
by the name Kjalar "drew Kjalki" (mic heto Jalc at As-
mundar, enn tha Kialar, er ec Kialka dro}. The word
and name Kjalki, as also Sledi, is used as a paraphrase
of the word and name Vagn** Thus Odin has once
"drawn Vagn" (waggon). The meaning of this is clear
from what is stated above. Hadding calls on Odin, who
is the friend of him and of his cause, and Odin, who on
a former occasion has carried Hadding on Sleipner's
back through the air, now brings, in the same or a sim-
ilar manner, Vagnhofde to the battle-field, and places
him near his foster-son. This episode is also interesting
from the fact that we can draw from it the conclusion

*The crooked sword, as it appears from several passages in the sagas,
has long been regarded by our heathen ancestors as a foreign form of
weapon, used by the giants, but not by the gods or by the heroes of Midgard.
**Compare Fornald., ii. 118, where the hero of the saga cries to Gusi,
who comes running after him with "2 hreina ok vagn" —
Skrid thu af kjalka,
Kyrr thu hreina,
seggr sidforuU
seg hvattu heitirl

267

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

that the skalds who celebrated the first great war in their
songs made the gods influence the fate of the battle, not
directly but indirectly. Odin might himself have saved
his favourite, and he might have slain Svipdag's son
Asmund with his spear Gungner; but he does not do so;
instead, he brings Vagnhofde to protect him. This is
well calculated from an epic standpoint, while dii ex ma-
china, when they appear in person on the battle-field with
their superhuman strength, diminish the effect of the
deeds of mortal heroes, and deprive every distress in
which they have taken part of its more earnest signifi-
cance. Homer never violated this rule without injury
to the honour either of his gods or of his heroes.

40.
THE WORLD WAR (continued). HADDING'S DEFEAT.

LORE IN THE COUNCIL AND ON THE BATTLE-FIELD.
HEIMDAL THE PROTECTOR OF HIS DESCENDANT HAD-
DING.

The first great conflict in which the warriors of North
and West Teutondom fight with the East Teutons ends
with the complete victory of Groa's sons. Hadding's
fylkings are so thoroughly beaten and defeated that he,
after the end of the conflict, is nothing but a defenceless
fugitive, wandering in deep forests with no other com-
panion than Vagnhofde' s daughter, who survived the
battle and accompanies her beloved in his wanderings
in the wildernesses. Saxo ascribes the victory won over
Hadding to Loke. It follows of itself that, in a war

268

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

whose deepest root must be sought in Loke's and Aur-
boda's intrigues, and in which the clans of gods on both
sides take part, Loke should not be excluded by the
skalds from influence upon the course of events. We
have already seen that he sought to ruin Hadding while
the latter was still a boy. He afterwards appears in
various guises as evil counsellor, as an evil intriguer,
and as a skilful arranger of the fylkings on the field of
battle. His purpose is to frustrate every effort to bring
about reconciliation, and by means of persuasion and
falsehoods to increase the chances of enmity between
Halfdan's descendants, in order that they may mutually
destroy each other (see below). His activity among
the heroes is the counterpart of his activity among the
gods. The merry, sly, cynical, blameworthy, and pro-
foundly evil Mefisto of the Teutonic mythology is bound
to bring about the ruin of the Teutonic people like that
of the gods of the Teutons.

In the later Icelandic traditions he reveals himself as
the evil counsellor of princes in the forms of Blind ille,
Blind bolvise (in Saxo Bolvisus) ; Bikki; in the German
and Old English traditions as Sibich, Sifeca, Sifka.
Bikki is a name-form borrowed from Germany. The
original Norse Loke-epithet is Bekki, which means "the
foe," "the opponent". A closer examination shows that
everywhere where this counsellor appears his enterprises
have originally been connected with persons who belong
to Borgar's race. He has wormed himself into the fa-
vour of both the contending parties — as Blind ille with
King Hadding — whereof Hromund Greipson's saga has

269

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

preserved a distorted record — as Bikke, Sibeke, with
King Gudhorm (whose identity with Jormunrek shall
be established below). As Blind bolvise he lies in wait-
ing for and seeks to capture the young "Helge Hundings-
bane," that is to say, Half dan, Hadding's father (Helge
Hund., ii.). Under his own name, Loke, he lies in wait-
ing for and seeks to capture the young Hadding, Half-
dan's son. As a cunning general and cowardly warrior
he appears in the German saga-traditions, and there is
every reason to assume that it is his activity in the first
great war as the planner of Gudhorm's battle-line that in
the Norse heathen records secured Loke the epithets
sagna hrcerir and sagna sviptir, the leader of the warriors
forward and the leader of the warriors back — epithets
which otherwise would be both unfounded and incom-
prehensible, but they are found both in Thjodolf's poem
Haustlaung, and in Eilif Gudrunson's Thorsdrapa. It
is also a noticeable fact that while Loke in the first great
battle which ends with Hadding's defeat determines the
array of the victorious army — for only on this basis can
the victory be attributed to him by Saxo — it is in the
other great battle in which Hadding is victorious that
Odin himself determines how the forces of his protege
are to be arranged, namely, in that wedge-form which
after that time and for many centuries following was the
sacred and strictly preserved rule for the battle-array
of Teutonic forces. Thus the ancient Teutonic saga has
mentioned and compared with one another two different
kinds of battle-arrays — the one invented by Loke and the
other invented by Odin.

270

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

During his wanderings in the forests of the East Had-
ding has had wonderful adventures and passed through
great trials. Saxo tells one of these adventures. He
and Hardgrep, Vagnhofde's daughter, came late one even-
ing to a dwelling where they got lodgings for the night.
The husband was dead, but not yet buried. For the pur-
pose of learning Hadding's destiny, Hardgrep engraved
speech-runes (see No. 70) on a piece of wood, and asked
Hadding to place it under the tongue of the dead one.
The latter would in this wise recover the power of speech
and prophecy. So it came to pass. But what the dead
one sang in an awe-inspiring voice was a curse on Hard-
grep, who had compelled him to return from life in the
lower world to life on earth, and a prediction that an
avenging Niflheim demon would inflict punishment on
her for what she had done. A following night, when
Hadding and Hardgrep had sought shelter in a bower
of twigs and branches which they had gathered, there
appeared a gigantic hand groping under the ceiling of
the bower. The frightened Hadding waked Hardgrep.
She then rose in all her giant strength, seized the mysteri-
ous hand, and bade Hadding cut it off with his sword.
He attempted to do this, but from the wounds he in-
flicted on the ghost's hand there issued matter or
venom more than blood, and the hand seized Hardgrep
with its iron claws and tore her into pieces ( Saxo, Hist.,
36 ff.)-

When Hadding in this manner had lost his compan-
ion, he considered himself abandoned by everybody; but
the one-eyed old man had not forgotten his favourite.

271

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

He sent him a faithful helper, by name Liserus (Saxo,
Hist., 40). Who was Liserus in our mythology?

First, as to the name itself : in the very nature of the
case it must be the Latinising of some one of the my-
thological names or epithets that Saxo found in the Norse
records. But as no such root as Us or Us is to be found
in the old Norse language, and as Saxo interchanges
the vowels i and y* we must regard Liserus as a Latinis-
ing of Lysir, "the shining one," "the one giving light,"
"the bright one." When Odin sent a helper thus described
to Hadding, it must have been a person belonging to
Odin's circle and subject to him. Such a person and
described by a similar epithet is hinn hviti ass, hvitastr
dsa (Heimdal). In Saxo's account, this shining mes-
senger is particularly to oppose Loke (Hist., 40). And
in the myth it is the keen-sighted and faithful Heimdal
who always appears as the opposite of the cunning and
faithless Loke. Loke has to contend with Heimdal when
the former tries to get possession of Brisingamen, and in
Ragnarok the two opponents kill each other. Hadding's
shining protector thus has the same part to act in the
heroic saga as the whitest of the Asas in the mythology.
If we now add that Heimdal is Hadding's progenitor,
and on account of blood kinship owes him special pro-
tection in a war in which all the gods have taken part
'either for or against Halfdan's and Alveig's son, then
we are forced by every consideration to regard Liserus
and Heimdal as identical (see further, No. 82).

*Compare the double forms Trigo, TTirygir ; Ivarus, Yvarus ; Sibbo,
Sybbo; Siritha, Syritha; Sivardus, Syvardus; Hibernia, Hybernia; Isora,
Ysora.

2J2

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

41.

THE WORLD WAR (continued}. HADDING' s JOURNEY TO
THE; EAST. RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE ASAS AND
VANS. "THE HUN WAR/' HADDING RETURNS AND
CONQUERS. RECONCILIATION BETWEEN GROANS DE-
SCENDANTS AND ALVEIG'S. LORE'S PUNISHMENT.

Some time later there has been a change in Hadding's
affairs. He is no longer the exile wandering about in
the forests, but appears once more at the head of war-
like hosts. But although he accomplishes various ex-
ploits, it still appears from Saxo's narrative that it takes
a long time before he becomes strong enough to meet his
enemies in a decisive battle with hope of success. In the
meanwhile he has succeeded in accomplishing the revenge
of his father and slaying Svipdag (Saxo Hist., 42) —
this under circumstances which I shaH explain below
(No. 106). The proof that the hero-saga has left a long
space of time between the great battle lost by Hadding
and that in which he wins a decided victory is that he,
before this conflict is fought out, has slain a young grand-
son (son's son) of Svipdag, that is, a son of Asmund,
who was Svipdag's son (Saxo, Hist., 46). Hadding
was a mere boy when Svipdag first tried to capture him.
He is a man of years when he, through decided successes
on the battle-field, acquires and secures control of a great
part of the domain over which his father, the Teutonic
patriarch, reigned. Hence he must have spent consid-
erable time in the place of refuge which Odin opened for
him, and under the protection of that subject of Odin,
called by Saxo Liserus.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

In the time intervening important events have taken
place in the world of the gods. The two clans of gods,
the Asas and Vans, have become reconciled. Odin's
exile lasted, according to Saxo, only ten years, and there
is no reason for doubting the mythical correctness of
this statement. The reconciliation must have been de-
manded by the dangers which their enmity caused to the
administration of the world. The giants, whose pur-
pose it is to destroy the world of man, became once more
dangerous to the earth on account of the war among the
gods. During this time they made a desperate effort to
conquer Asgard occupied by the Vans. The memory
of this expedition was preserved during the Christian
centuries in the traditions concerning the great Hun war.
Saxo (Hist., 231 ff.) refers this to Frotho III.'s reign.
What he relates about this Frotho, son of Fridlevus
(Njord), is for the greatest part a historicised version
of the myth about the Vana-god Frey (see No. 102) ;
and every doubt that his account of the war of the
"Huns" against Frotho has its foundation in mythology,
and belongs to the chain of events here discussed, van-
ishes when we learn that the attack of the Huns against
Frotho-Frey's power happened at a time when an old
prophet, by name Uggerus, "whose age was unknown,
but exceeded every measure of human life," lived in
exile, and belonged to the number of Frotho's enemies.
Uggerus is a Latinised form of Odin's name Yggr, and
is the same mythic character as Saxo before introduced
on the scene as "the old one-eyed man," Hadding's pro-
tector. Although he had been Frotho's enemy, the aged

274

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Yggr comes to him and informs him what the "Huns"
are plotting, and thus Krotho is enabled to resist their
assault.*

When Odin, out of consideration for the common wel-
fare of mankind and the gods, renders the Vans, who had
banished him, this service, and as the latter are in the
greatest need of the assistance of the mighty Asa-father
and his powerful sons in the conflict with the giant world,
then these facts explain sufficiently the reconciliation be-
tween the Asas and the Vans. This reconciliation was
also in order on account of the bonds of kinship between
them. The chief hero of the Asas, Thor, was the step-
father of Ull, the chief warrior of the Vans (Younger
Edda, i. 252). The record of a friendly settlement be-
tween Thor and Ull is preserved in a paraphrase, by
which Thor is described in Thorsdrapa as "gulli Ullar,"
he who with persuasive words makes Ull friendly. Odin
was invited to occupy again the high-seat in Asgard,
with all the prerogatives of a paterfamilias and ruler
(Saxo, Hist., 44). But the dispute which caused the
conflict between him and the Vans was at the same time
manifestly settled to the advantage of the Vans. They
do not assume in common the responsibility for the mur-
der of Gulveig Angerboda. She is banished to the Iron-
wood, but remains there unharmed until Ragnarok, and
when the destruction of the world approaches, then Njord
shall leave the Asas threatened with the ruin they have
themselves caused and return to the "wise Vans" (i aldar

*Deseruit eum (Hun) quoque Uggerus vates, vir cetatis incognitee et
supra humanum terminum prolixce ; qui Frothonem transfugce titulo petens
quidquid ab Hunis parabatur edocuit (Hist., 238).

275

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

rauc hann mun aptr coma heim tned visom vaunom —
Vafthr., 39).

The "Hun war" has supplied the answer to a question,
which those believing in the myths naturally would ask
themselves. That question was: How did it happen
that Midgard was not in historical times exposed to such
attacks from the dwellers in Jotunheim as occurred in
antiquity, and at that time threatened Asgard itself with
destruction? The "Hun war" was in the myth charac-
terized by the countless lives lost by the enemy. This
we learn from Saxo. The sea, he says, was so filled
with the bodies of the slain that boats could hardly be
rowed through the waves. In the rivers their bodies
formed bridges, and on land a person could make a three
days' journey on horseback without seeing anything but
dead bodies of the slain (Hist., 234, 240). And so the
answer to the question was, that the "Hun war" of an-
tiquity had so weakened the giants in number and
strength that they could not become so dangerous as they
had been to Asgard and Midgard formerly, that is, be-
fore the time immediately preceding Ragnarok, when a
new fimbul-winter is to set in, and when the giant world
shall rise again in all its ancient might. From the time
of the "Hun war" and until then, Thor's hammer is able
to keep the growth of the giants' race within certain
limits, wherefore Thor in Harbardsljod explains his at-
tack on giants and giantesses with micil mundi ett iotna,
ef allir lifdi, vetr mundi manna widir Mithgarthi.

Hadding's rising star of success must be put in con-
nection with the reconciliation between the Asas and

276

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Vans. The reconciled gods must lay aside that seed of
new feuds between them which is contained in the war
between Hadding, the favourite of the Asas, and Gud-
horm, the favourite of the Vans. The great defeat once
suffered by Hadding must be balanced by a correspond-
ing victory, and then the contending kinsmen must be
reconciled. And this happens. Hadding wins a great
battle and enters upon a secure reign in his part of Teu-
tondom. Then are tied new bonds of kinship and
friendship between the hostile races, so that the Teutonic
dynasties of chiefs may trace their descent both from
Yngve (Svipdag) and from Borgar's son Half dan.
Hadding and a surviving grandson of Svipdag are united
in so tender a devotion to one another that the latter,
upon an unfounded report of the former's death, is un-
able to survive him and takes his own life. And when
Hadding learns this, he does not care to live any longer
either, but meets death voluntarily (Saxo, Hist., 59, 60).
After the reconciliation between the Asas and Vans
they succeed in capturing Loke. Saxo relates this in
connection with Odin's return from Asgard, and here
calls Loke Mitothin. In regard to this name, we may,
without entering upon difficult conjectures concerning
the first part of the word, be sure that it, too, is taken
by Saxo from the heathen records in which he has found
his account of the first great war, and that it, in accord-
ance with the rule for forming such epithets, must refer
to a mythic person who has had a certain relation with
Odin, and at the same time been his antithesis. Accord-
ing to Saxo, Mitothm is a thoroughly evil being, who,

277

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

like Aurboda, strove to disseminate the practice of witch-
craft in the world and to displace Odin. He was com-
pelled to take flight and to conceal himself from the gods.
He is captured and slain, but from his dead body arises
a pest, so that he does no less harm after than before his
death. It therefore became necessary to open his grave,
cut his head off, and pierce his breast with a sharp stick
(Hist., 43).

These statements in regard to Mitothin's death seem at
first glance not to correspond very well with the mythic
accounts of Loke's exit, and thus give room for doubt
as to his identity with the latter. It is also clear that
Saxo's narrative has been influenced by the mediaeval
stories about vampires and evil ghosts, and about the man-
ner of preventing these from doing harm to the living.
Nevertheless, all that he here tells, the beheading in-
cluded, is founded on the mythic accounts of Loke. The
place where Loke is fettered is situated in the extreme
part of the hell of the wicked dead (see No. 78). The
fact that he is relegated to the realm of the dead, and is
there chained in a subterranean cavern until Ragnarok,
when all the dead in the lower world shall return, has
been a sufficient reason for Saxo to represent him as dead
and buried. That he after death causes a pest corre-
sponds with Saxo's account of Ugarthttocus, who has
his prison in a cave under a rock situated in a
sea, over which darkness broods for ever (the island
Lyngvi in Amsvartner's sea, where Loke's prison is —
see No. 78). The hardy sea-captain, Thorkil, seeks
and finds him in his cave of torture, pulls a hair from the

278

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

beard on his chin, and brings it with him to Denmark.
When this hair afterwards is exposed and exhibited, the
awful exhalation from it causes the death of several per-
sons standing near (Hist., 432, 433). When a hair
from the beard of the tortured Loke ("a hair from the
evil one") could produce this effect, then his whole body
removed to the kingdom of death must work even greater
mischief, until measures were taken to prevent it. In
this connection it is to be remembered that Loke, ac-
cording to the Icelandic records, is the father of the fem-
inine demon of epidemics and diseases, of her who rules
in Niflheim, the home of the spirits of disease (see No.
60), and that it is Loke's daughter who rides the three-
footed steed, which appears when an epidemic breaks
out (see No. 67). Thus Loke is, according to the Ice-
landic mythic fragments, the cause of epidemics. Laka-
senna also states that he lies with a pierced body, al-
though the weapon there is a sword, or possibly a spear
(pic a hiorvi scola binda god — Lakas., 49). That Mito-
thin takes flight and conceals himself from the gods cor-
responds with the myth about Loke. But that which
finally and conclusively confirms the identity of Loke
and Mitothin is that the latter, though a thoroughly evil
being and hostile to the gods, is said to have risen
through the enjoyment of divine favour (ccelesti beneficio
vegetatus). Among male beings of his character this
applies to Loke alone.

In regard to the statement that Loke after his re-
moval to the kingdom of death had his head separated
from his body, Saxo here relates, though in his own pe-

279

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

culiar manner, what the myth contained about Loke's
ruin, which was a logical consequence of his acts and hap-
pened long after his removal to the realm of death.
Loke is slain in Ragnarok, to which he, freed from his
cave of torture in the kingdom of death, proceeds at the
head of the hosts of "the sons of destruction." In the
midst of the conflict he seeks or is sought by his con-
stant foe, Heimdal. The shining god, the protector of
Asgard, the original patriarch and benefactor of man,
contends here for the last time with the Satan of the
Teutonic mythology, and Heimdal and Loke mutually
slay each other (Loki a orustu vid Heimdall, ok verdr
hvarr annars bani — Younger Edda, 192). In this duel
we learn that Heimdal, who fells his foe, was himself
pierced or "struck through" to death by a head (svd er
sagt, at hann var lostinn manns hofdi i gognum — Younger
Edda, 264; hann var lostinn i hel med manns hofdi —
Younger Edda, 100, ed. Res). When Heimdal and
Loke mutually cause each other's death, this must mean
that Loke's head is that with which Heimdal is pierced
after the latter has cut it off with his sword and become
the bane (death) of his foe. Light is thrown on this
episode by what Saxo tells about Loke's head. While
the demon in chains awaits Ragnarok, his hair and beard
grow in such a manner that "they in size and stiffness
resemble horn-spears" (Ugarthilocus . . . cujus olentes
pili tarn magnitudine quam rigor e corneas czquaauerant
hastas — Hist., 431, 432). And thus it is explained how
the myth could make his head act the part of a weapon.
That amputated limbs continue to live and fight is a

280

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

peculiarity mentioned in other mythic sagas, and should
not surprise us in regard to Loke, the dragon-demon, the
father of the Midgard-serpent (see further, No. 82).

42.

HALFDAN AND HAMAL FOSTER-BROTHERS. THE AMA-
LIANS FIGHT IN BEHALF OF HALFDAN'S SON HADDING.
HAMAL AND THE WEDGE-FORMED BATTLE-ARRAY. THE
ORIGINAL MODEL OF THE BRAVALLA BATTLE.

The mythic progenitor of the Amalians, Hamall, has
already been mentioned above as the foster-brother of
the Teutonic patriarch, Half dan (Helge Hundingsbane).
According to Norse tradition, Hamal's father, Hagall,
had been Half dan's foster-father (Helge Hund., ii.), and
thus the devoted friend of Borgar. There being so close
a relation between the progenitors of these great hero-
families of Teutonic mythology, it is highly improbable
that the Amalians did not also act an important part in
the first great world war, since all the Teutonic tribes,
and consequently surely their first families of mythic ori-
gin, took part in it. In the ancient records of the North,
we discover a trace which indicates that the Amalians
actually did fight on that side where we should expect
to find them, that is, on Hadding's, and that Hamal him-
self was the field-commander of his foster-brother. The
trace is found in the phrase fylkja Hamalt, occurring in
several places (Sig. Faf., ii. 23; Har. Hardr., ch. 2; For-
nalds. Saga, ii. 40; Fornm., xi. 304). The phrase can
only be explained in one way, "arranged the battle-array

19 281

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

as Hamall first did it." To Hamal has also been as-
cribed the origin of the custom of fastening the shields
close together along the ship's railing, which appears
from the following lines in Harald Hardrade's Saga, 63 :

Hamalt syndiz mer homlur
hildings vinir skilda.

We also learn in our Norse records that fylkja Hamalt,
"to draw up in line of battle as Hamal did," means the
same as svinfylkja, that is, to arrange the battalions in the
form of a wedge.* Now Saxo relates (Hist., 52) that
Hadding's army was the first to draw the forces up in
this manner, and that an old man (Odin) whom he has
taken on board on a sea- journey had taught and advised
him to do this.** Several centuries later Odin, accord-
ing to Saxo, taught this art to Harald Hildetand. But
the mythology has not made Odin teach it twice. The
repetition has its reason in the fact that Harald Hilde-
tand, in one of the records accessible to Saxo, was a son
of Halfdan Borgarson (Hist., 361; according to other
records a son of Borgar himself — Hist., 337), and con-
sequently a son of Hadding's father, the consequence of
which is that features of Hadding's saga have been in-
corporated into the saga produced in a later time concern-
ing the saga-hero Harald Hildetand. Thereby the Bra-
valla battle has obtained so universal and gigantic a char-

*Compare the passage, Eirikr konungr fylkti svd lidi sinu, at rani (the
swine- snout) var a framan d fylkinganni, ok lukt allt utan med skjaldbjprg,
(Fornm., xi. 304), with the passage quoted in this connection: hildingr
fylkti Hamalt lidi miklu.

**The saga of Sigurd Fafnersbane, which absorbed materials from all
older sagas, has also incorporated this episode. On a sea-journey Sigurd
takes on board a man who calls himself Hnikarr (a name of Odin). He
advises him to "fylkja Hamalt" (Sig. Fafn., ii. 16-23).

282

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

acter. It has been turned into an arbitrarily written ver-
sion of the battle which ended in Hadding's defeat.
Swedes, Goths, Norsemen, Curians, and Esthonians here
fight on that side which, in the original model of the
battle, was represented by the hosts of Svipdag and Gud-
horm ; Danes ( few in number, according to Saxo) , Sax-
ons (according to Saxo, the main part of the army),
Livonians, and Slavs fight on the other side. The fleets
and armies are immense on both sides. Shield-maids
(amazons) occupy the position which in the original
was held by the giantesses Hardgrep, Fenja, and Menja.
In the saga description produced in Christian times the
Bravalla battle is a ghost of the myth concerning the first
great war. Therefore the names of several of the heroes
who take part in the battle are an echo from the myth
concerning the Teutonic patriarchs and the great war.
There appear B or gar and Behrgar the wise (Borgar),
Haddir (Hadding), Ruthar (Hrutr-Heimdal, see No.
28a), Od (Odr, a surname of Freyja's, husband, Svip-
dag, see Nos. 96-98, 100, 101), Brahi (Brache, Asa-
Bragr, see No. 102), Gram (Half dan), and Ingi
(Yngve), all of which names we recognise from the pa-
triarch saga, but which, in the manner in which they are
presented in the new saga, show how arbitrarily the
mythic records were treated at that time.

The myth has rightly described the wedge-shaped ar-
rangement of the troops as an ancient custom among
the Teutons. Tacitus (Germ., 6) says that the Teutons
arranged their forces in the form of a wedge (acies per
cuneos componitur), and Caesar suggests the same (De

283

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Bell. Gall., i. 52 : Germani celeriter ex consuetudine sua
phalange facta . . .). Thus our knowledge of this cus-
tom as Teutonic extends back to the time before the birth
of Christ. Possibly it was then already centuries old.
The Aryan-Asiatic kinsmen of the Teutons had knowl-
edge of it, and the Hindooic law-book, called Manus',
ascribes to it divine sanctity and divine origin. On the
geographical line which unites Teutondom with Asia it
was also in vogue. According to ^lianus (De instr. ac.,
18), the wedge-shaped array of battle was known to the
Scythians and Thracians.

The statement that Harald Hildetand, son of Halfdan
Borgarson, learned this arrangement of the forces from
Odin many centuries after he had taught the art to Had-
ding, does not disprove, but on the contrary confirms,
the theory that Hadding, son of Halfdan Borgarson, was
not only the first but also the only one who received this
instruction from the Asa-father. And as we now have
side by side the two statements, that Odin gave Hadding
this means of victory, and that Hamal was the first one
who arranged his forces in the shape of a wedge, then it
is all the more necessary to assume that these statements
belong together, and that Hamal was Hadding's general,
especially as we have already seen that Hadding's and
Hamal's families were united by the sacred ties which
connect foster-father with foster-son and foster-brother
with foster-brother.

284

43.

EVIDENCE THAT DIETERICH "OF BERN" IS HADDING. THE
DIETERICH SAGA THUS HAS ITS ORIGIN IN THE MYTH
CONCERNING THE WAR BETWEEN MANNUS-HAkFDAN'S
SONS.

The appearance of Hamal and the Amalians on Had-
ding's side in the great world war becomes a certainty
from the fact that we discover among the descendants of
the continental Teutons a great cycle of sagas, all of
whose events are more or less intimately connected with
the mythic kernel : that Amalian heroes with unflinching
fidelity supported a prince who already in the tender years
of his youth had been deprived of his share of his fa-
ther's kingdom, and was obliged to take flight from the
persecution of a kinsman and his assistants to the far
East, where he remained a long time, until after various
fortunes of war he was able to return, conquer, and take
possession of his paternal inheritance. And for this he
was indebted to the assistance of the brave Amalians.
These are the chief points in the saga cycle about Dieter-
ich of Bern (thjodrekr, Thidrek, Theodericus) , and the
fortunes of the young prince are, as we have thus seen,
substantially the same as Hadding's.

When we compare sagas preserved by the descendants
of the Teutons of the Continent with sagas handed down
to us from Scandinavian sources, we must constantly bear
in mind that the great revolution which the victory of
Christianity over Odinism produced in the Teutonic world
of thought, inasmuch as it tore down the ancient mythical

285

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

structure and applied the fragments that were fit for use
as material for a new saga structure — that this revolu-
tion required a period of more than eight hundred years
before it had conquered the last fastnesses of the Odinic
doctrine. On the one side of the slowly advancing bor-
ders between the two religions there developed and con-
tinued a changing and transformation of the old sagas,
the main purpose of which was to obliterate all that con-
tained too much flavour of heathendom and was incom-
patible with Christianity; while, on the other side of the
borders of faith, the old mythic songs, but little affected
by the tooth of time, still continued to live in their original
form. Thus one might, to choose the nearest example at
hand, sing on the northern side of this faith-border, where
heathendom still prevailed, about how Hadding, when
the persecutions of Svipdag and his half-brother Gud-
horm compelled him to fly to the far East, there was pro-
tected by Odin, and how he through him received the
assistance of Hrutr-Heimdall; while the Christians, on
the south side of this border, sang of how Dieterich, per-
secuted by a brother and the protectors of the latter, was
forced to take flight to the far East, and how he was there
received by a mighty king, who, as he could no longer be
Odin, must be the mightiest king in the East ever heard
of — that is, Attila — and how Attila gave him as protec-
tor a certain Rudiger, whose very name contains an echo
of Ruther (Heimdal), who could not, however, be the
white Asa-god, Odin's faithful servant, but must be
changed into a faithful vassal and "markgrave" under
Attila. The Saxons were converted to Christianity by

286

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

fire and sword in the latter part of the eighth century.
In the deep forests of Sweden heathendom did not yield
completely to Christianity before the twelfth century.
In the time of Saxo's father there were still heathen com-
munities in Smaland on the Danish border. It follows
that Saxo must have received the songs concerning the
ancient Teutonic heroes in a far more original form than
that in which the same songs could be found in Ger-
many.

Hadding means "the hairy one," "the fair-haired;"
Dieterich (thjodrekr} means "the ruler of the people,"
"the great ruler." Both epithets belong to one and the
same saga character. Hadding is the epithet which be-
longs to him as a youth, before he possessed a kingdom ;
Dieterich is the epithet which represents him as the king
of many Teutonic tribes. The Vilkinsaga says of him
that he had an abundant and beautiful growth of hair,
but that he never got .a beard. This is sufficient to ex-
plain the name Hadding, by which he was presumably
celebrated in song among all Teutonic tribes ; for we have
already seen that Hadding is known in Anglo-Saxon
poetry as Hearding, and, as we shall see, the continental
Teutons knew him not only as Dieterich, but also as Har-
tung. It is also possible that the name "the hairy" has
in the myth had the same purport as the epithet "the
fair-haired" has in the Norse account of Harald, Nor-
way's first ruler, and that Hadding of the myth was the
prototype of Harald, when the latter made the vow to
let his hair grow until he was king of all Norway (Har-
ald Harfager's Saga, 4). The custom of not cutting

287

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

hair or beard before an exploit resolved upon was carried
out was an ancient one among the Teutons, and so com-
mon and so sacred that it must have had foothold and
prototype in the hero-saga. Tacitus mentions it (Ger-
manic,, 31) ; so does Paulus Diaconus (Hist., iii. 7) and
Gregorius of Tours (v. 15).

Although it had nearly ceased to be heard in the Ger-
man saga cycle, still the name Hartung has there left
, traces of its existence. "Anhang des Heldenbuchs" men-
tions King Hartung aus Reiissenlant; that is to say, a
King Hartung who came from some land in the East.
The poem "Rosengarten" (variant D; cp. W. Grimm,
D. Heldensage, 139, 253) also mentions Hartunc, king
von Riuzen. A comparison of the different versions of
"Rosengarten" with the poem "Dieterichs Flucht" shows
that the name Hartung von Riuzen in the course of time
becomes Hartnit von Riuzen and Hertnit von Riuzen,
by which form of the name the hero reappears in Vilkina-
saga as a king in Russia. If we unite the scattered fea-
tures contained in these sources about Hartung we get
the following main outlines of his saga :

(a) Hartung is a king and dwells in an eastern coun-
try (all the records).

(fc) He is not, however, an independent ruler there,
at least not in the beginning, but is subject to Attila (who
in the Dieterich's saga has supplanted Odin as chief ruler
in the East). He is Attila's man ("Dieterichs Flucht").

(d) The Swedish king is of the race of elves, and

288

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the chief of the same race as the celebrated Velint — that is
to say, Volund (Wayland) — belonged to (Vilkinasaga).
As shall be shown later (see Nos. 108, 109), Svipdag,
the banisher of Hadding, belongs to the same race. He
is Volund's nephew (brother's son).

(e) Hartung recovers, after the death of the Swedish
conqueror, his own kingdom, and also conquers that of
the Swedish king (Vilkinasaga).

All these features are found in the saga of Hadding.
Thus the original identity of Hadding and Hartung is
beyond doubt. We also find that Hartung, like Diet-
erich, is banished from his country ; that he fled, like him,
to the East ; that he got, like him, Attila the king of the
East as his protector; that he thereupon returned, con-
quered his enemies, and recovered his kingdom. Had-
ding's, Hartung's and Dieterich's sagas are, therefore,
one and the same in root and in general outline. Below
it shall also be shown that the most remarkable details
are common to them all.

I have above (No. 42) given reasons why Hamal
(Amala), the foster-brother of Half dan Borgarson, was
Hadding's assistant and general in the war against his
foes. The hero, who in the German saga has the same
place under Dieterich, is the aged "master" Hildebrand,
Dieterich's faithful companion, teacher, and commander
of his troops. Can it be demonstrated that what the
German saga tells about Hildebrand reveals threads that
connect him with the saga of the original patriarchs, and
that not only his position as Dieterich's aged friend and
general, but also his genealogy, refer to this saga ? And

289

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

can a satisfactory explanation be given of the reason why
Hildebrand obtained in the German Dieterich saga the
same place as Hamal had in the old myth ?

Hildebrand is, as his very name shows, a Hilding,*
like Hildeger who appears in the patriarch saga (Saxo,
Hist., 356-359). Hildeger was, according to the tradi-
tion in Saxo, the half-brother of Halfdan Borgarson.
They had the same mother Dr ot, but not the same father ;
Hildeger counted himself a Swede on his father's side;
Halfdan, Borgar's son, considered himself as belonging
to the South Scandinavians and Danes, and hence the
dying Hildeger sings to Halfdan (Hist., 357) :

Danica te tellus, me Sveticus edidit orbis.
Drot tibi maternutn, quondam distenderat uber;
Hac gen'itrici tibi pariter collacteus exto.* *

In the German tradition Hildebrand is the son of Her-
brand. The Old High German fragment of the song,

*In nearly all the names of members of this family, Hild- or -brand,

appears as a

part of the compound word. All that the names appear to

signify is that their owners belong to the Hilding race. Examples : —

Old High

Wolfdie-

Vilkina-

A popular

Fundin

Flateybook,

Asmund

German

terich

saga.

song about

Noregur.

i. 25,

Kcempebane's

fragment.

Hildebrand.

Saga.

Herbrand

Berchtung.

Hildebrand

Hildebrand.

Hildir.

Hildebrand.

Herbr

and

Alebrand.

The younger

Hildebrand.

Helge.

Hildebrand.

Hadubrand.

Hildet

rand.

Hildir.

Vigbrand.

Hildebrand.

Herbrand.

Hildir.

Herbrand.

**Compare in Asmund Kaempebane's saga the words of the dying hero:
thik Drott of bar
af Danmorku
en mik sjdlfan
a Svithiodu.

290

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

about Hildebrand's meeting with his son Hadubrand,
calls him Heribrantes sunu. Herbrand again is, accord-
ing to the poem "Wolfdieterich," Berchtung's son (con-
cerning Berchtung, see No. 6). In a Norse tradition
preserved by Saxo we find a Hilding (Hildeger) who is
Borgar's stepson; in the German tradition we find a
Hilding (Herbrand) who is Borgar-Berchtung's son.
This already shows that the German saga about Hilde-
brand was originally connected with the patriarch saga
about Borgar, Halfdan, and Halfdan's sons, and that the
Hildings from the beginning were akin to the Teutonic
patriarchs. Borgar's transformation from stepfather to
the father of a Hilding shall be explained below.

Hildeger's saga and Hildebrand's are also related in
subject matter. The fortunes of both the kinsmen are
at the same time like each other and the antithesis of each
other. Hildeger's character is profoundly tragic; Hil-
debrand is happy and secure. Hildeger complains in his
death-song in Saxo (cp. Asmund Kasmpebane's saga)
that he has fought with and slain his own beloved son.
In the Old High German song-fragment Hildebrand
seeks, after his return from the East, his son Hadubrand,
who believed that his father was dead and calls Hilde-
brand a deceiver, who has taken the dead man's name,
and forces him to fight a duel. The fragment ends be-
fore we learn the issue of the duel ; but Vilkinasaga and a
ballad about Hildebrand have preserved the tradition in
regard to it. When the old "master" has demonstrated
that his Hadubrand is not yet equal to him in arms,
father and son ride side by side in peace and happiness to

291

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

their home. Both the conflicts between father and son,
within the Hilding family, are pendants and each oth-
er's antithesis. Hildeger, who passionately loves war and
combat, inflicts in his eagerness for strife a deep wound
in his own heart when he kills his own son. Hildebrand
acts wisely, prudently, and seeks to ward off and allay
the son's love of combat before the duel begins, and he is
able to end it by pressing his young opponent to his pa-
ternal bosom. On the other hand, Hildeger's conduct
toward his half-brother Halfdan, the ideal of a noble and
generous enemy, and his last words to his brother, who,
ignorant of the kinship, has given him the fatal wound,
and whose mantle the dying one wishes to wrap himself
in (Asmund Ksempebane's saga), is one of the touching
scenes in the grand poems about our earliest ancestors.
It seems to have proclaimed that blood revenge was in-
admissible, when a kinsman, without being aware of
the kinship, slays a kinsman, and when the latter before
he died declared his devotion to his slayer. At all events
we rediscover the aged Hildebrand as the teacher and
protector of the son of the same Halfdan who slew Hil-
deger, and not a word is said about blood revenge be-
tween Halfdan's and Hildeger's descendants.

The kinship pointed out between the Teutonic patri-
archs and the Hildings has not, however, excluded a re-
lation of subordination of the latter to the former. In
"Wolfdieterich" Hildebrand's father receives land and
fief from Dieterich's grandfather and carries his banner
in war. Hildebrand himself performs toward Dieterich
those duties which are due from a foster-father, which,

292

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

as a rule, show a relation of subordination to the real
father of the foster-son. Among the kindred families to
which Dieterich and Hildebrand belong there was the
same difference of rank as between those to which Had-
ding and Hamal belong. Hamal's father Hagal was
Halfdan's foster-father, and, to judge from this, oc-
cupied the position of a subordinate friend toward Half-
dan's father Borgar. Thus Halfdan and Hamal were
foster-brothers, and from this it follows that Hamal, if
he survived Halfdan, was bound to assume a foster-
father's duties towards the latter's son Hadding, who
was not yet of age. Hamal's relation to Hadding is
therefore entirely analagous to Hildebrand's relation to
Dieterich.

The pith of that army which attached itself to Dieter-
ich are Amelungs, Amalians (see "Biterolf") ; that is to
say, members of Hamal's race. The oldest and most im-
portant hero, the pith of the pith, is old master Hilde-
brand himself, Dieterich's foster-father and general. Per-
sons who in the German poems have names which refer to
their Amalian birth are by Hildebrand treated as members
of a clan are treated by a clan-chief. Thus Hildebrand
brings from Sweden a princess, Amalgart, and gives her
as wife to a son of Amelolt serving among Dieterich's
Amelungs, and to Amelolt Hildebrand has already given
his sister for a wife.

The question as to whether we find threads which con-
nect the Hildebrand of the German poem with the saga
of the mythic patriarchs, and especially with the Hamal
(Amala) who appears in this saga, has now been an-

293

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

swered. Master Hildebrand has in the German saga-
cycle received the position and the tasks which originally
belonged to Hamal, the progenitor of the Amalians.

The relation between the kindred families — the pa-
triarch family, the Hilding family, and the Amal family
— has certainly been just as distinctly pointed out in the
German saga-cycle as in the Norse before the German
met with a crisis, which to some extent confused the old
connection. This crisis came when Hadd'mg-thjodrekr
of the ancient myth was confounded with the historical
king of the East Goths, Theoderich. The East Goth Theo-
derich counted himself as belonging to the Amal family,
which had grown out of the soil of the myth. He was,
according to Jordanes (De Goth. Orig., 14), a son of
Thiudemer, who traced his ancestry to Amal (Hamal),
son of Augis (Hagal).* The result of the confusion
was:

(a) That Hadding-thjodrekr became the son of
Thiudemer, and that his descent from the Teuton patri-
archs was cut off.

(&) That Hadding-thjodrekr himself became a de-
scendant of Hamal, whereby the distinction between this
race of rulers — the line of Teutonic patriarchs begun with
Ruther Heimdal — together with the Amal family, friend-
ly but subject to the Hadding family, and the Hilding
family was partly obscured and partly abolished. Diet-
erich himself became an "Amelung" like several of his
heroes.

*The texts of Jordanes often omit the aspirate and write Eruli for
Heruli, &c. In regard to the name-form Amal, Gloss remarks, in his
edition of 1886 : AMAL, sic, Ambr. cum Epit. et Pall, nisi quod hi Hamal
aspirate.

294

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

(c) That when Hamal thus was changed from an
elder contemporary of Hadd'mg-thjodrekr into his earliest
progenitor, separated from him by several generations of
time, he could no longer serve as Dieterich's foster-fa-
ther and general ; but this vocation had to be transferred
to master Hildebrand, who also in the myth must have
been closely connected with Hadding, and, together with
Hamal, one of his chief and constant helpers.

(<£) That Borgar-Berchtung, who in the myth is the
grandfather of ~H.addmg-th/6drekr, must, as he was not
an Amal, resign this dignity and confine himself to being
the progenitor of the Hildings. As we have seen, he is
in Saxo the progenitor of the Hilding Hildeger.

Another result of Hadding- thjodrekr's confusion with
the historical Theoderich was that Dieterich's kingdom,
and the scene of various of his exploits, was transferred
to Italy: to Verona (Bern), Ravenna (Raben), &c. Still
the strong stream of the ancient myths became master
of the confused historical increments, so that the Dieter-
ich of the saga has but little in common with the histori-
cal Theoderich.

After the dissemination of Christianity, the hero saga
of the Teutonic myths was cut off from its roots in the
mythology, and hence this confusion was natural and nec-
essary. Popular tradition, in which traces were found
of the historical Theoderich-Dieterich, was no longer
able to distinguish the one Dieterich from the other. A
writer acquainted with the chronicle of Jordanes took
the last step and made Theoderich's father Thiudemer
the father of the mythic Hadding-thjodrekr.

295

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Nor did the similarity of names alone encourage this
blending of the persons. There was also another rea-
son. The historical Theoderich had fought against
Odoacer. The mythic ~H.a.ddmg-thjodrekr had warred
with Svipdag, the husband of Freyja, who also bore the
name Odr and Ottar (see Nos. 96-100). The latter
name-form corresponds to the English and German Otter,
the Old High German Otar, a name which suggested the
historical Otacher (Odoacer). The Dieterich and Ota-
cher of historical traditions became identified with
thjodrekr and Ottar of mythical traditions.

As the Hadding-thjodrekr of mythology was in his
tender youth exposed to the persecutions of Ottar, and
had to take flight from them to the far East, so the Diet-
erich of the historical saga also had to suffer persecutions
in his tender youth from Otacher, and take flight, accom-
panied by his faithful Amalians, to a kingdom in the
East. Accordingly, Hadubrand says of his father Hil-
debrand, that, when he betook himself to the East, with
Dieterich, floh her Otachres nid, "he fled from Otacher 's
hate." Therefore, Otacher soon disappears from the
German saga-cycle, for Svipdag-Ottar perishes and dis-
appears in the myth, long before Hadding's victory and
restoration to his father's power (see No. 106).

Odin and Heimdal, who then, according to the myth,
dwelt in the East and there became the protectors of
Hadding, must, as heathen deities, be removed from the
Christian saga, and be replaced as best they could by
others. The famous ruler in the East, Attila, was
better suited than anyone else to take Odin's place,

296

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

though Attila was dead before Theoderich was born.
Ruther-Heimdal was, as we have already seen, changed
into Riidiger.

The myth made Hadding dwell in the East for many
years (see above). The ten-year rule of the Vans in
Asgard must end, and many other events must occur be-
fore the epic connection of the myths permitted Hadding
to return as a victor. As a result of this, the saga of
"Dieterich of Bern" also lets him remain a long time
with Attila. An old English song preserved in the Exe-
ter manuscript, makes Theodric remain thrittig wintra
in exile at Maringaburg. The song about Hildebrand
and Hadubrand make him remain in exile sumaro enti
wintro sehstic, and Vilkinasaga makes him sojourn in
the East thirty-two years.

Maeringaburg of the Anglo-Saxon poem is the refuge
which Odin opened for his favourite, and where the for-
mer dwelt during his exile in the East. Maeringaburg
means a citadel inhabited by noble, honoured, and splen-
did persons: compare the Old Norse mceringr. But the
original meaning of m&rr, Old German mdra, is "glit-
tering," "shining," "pure," and it is possible that, before
m&ringr received its general signification of a famous,
honoured, noble man, it was used in the more special
sense of a man descended from "the shining one," that
is to say, from Heimdal through Borgar. However
this may be, these "maeringar" have, in the Anglo-Saxon
version of the Hadding saga, had their antitheses in the
"baningar," that is, the men of Loke-Bicke (Bekki).
This appears from the expression Bekka veold Baningum,

20 297

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

in Codex Exoniensis. The Banings are no more than
the Mserings, an historical name. The interpretation of
the word is to be sought in the Anglo-Saxon bana, the
English bane. The Banings means "the destroyers,"
"the corrupters," a suitable appellation of those who fol-
low the source of pest, the all-corrupting L,oke. In the
German poems, Maeringaburg is changed to Meran, and
Borgar-Berchtung (Hadding's grandfather in the myth)
is Duke of Meran. It is his fathers who have gone to
the gods that Hadding finds again with Odin and Heim-
dal in the East.

Despite the confusion of the historical Theoderich with
the mythic Hadding-thjodrekr, a tradition has been
handed down within the German saga-cycle to the effect
that "Dieterich of Bern" belonged to a genealogy which
Christianity had anathematised. Two of the German
Dieterich poems, "Nibelunge Noth" and "Klage," re-
frain from mentioning the ancestors of their hero. Wil-
helm Grimm suspects that the reason for this is that the
authors of these poems knew something about Dieterich's
descent, which they could not relate without wounding
Christian ears ; and he reminds us that, when the Vilkina-
saga Thidrek (Dieterich) teases Hogne (Hagen) by
calling him the son of an elf, Hogne answers that Thidrek
has a still worse descent, as he is the son of the devil him-
self. The matter, which in Grimm's eyes is mystical,
is explained by the fact that 'H.a.dding-thjodrekr's father
in the myth, Halfdan Borgarson, was supposed to be
descended from Thor, and in his capacity of a Teutonic
patriarch he had received divine worship (see Nos. 23

298

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and 30). Anliang des Heldenbuchs says that Dieterich
was the son of a "boser geyst"

It has already been stated (No. 38) that Hadding
from Odin received a drink which exercised a wonderful
influence upon his physical nature. It made him recrea-
tum vegetiori corporis firmitate, and, thanks to it and to
the incantation sung over him by Odin, he was able to
free himself from the chains afterwards put on him by
Loke. It has also been pointed out that this drink con-
tained something called Leifner's or Leifin's flames.
There is every reason for assuming that these "flames"
had the effect of enabling the person who had partaken of
the potion of Leifner's flames to free himself from his
chains with his own breath. Groa (Groagalder, 10) gives
her son Svipdag "Leifner's fires" in order that if he is
chained, his enchanted limbs may be liberated (ek l&t ther
Leifnis elda fyr kvedinn legg). The record of the giv-
ing of this gift to Hadding meets us in the German saga,
in the form that Dieterich was able with his breath to
burn the fetters laid upon him (see "Laurin"), nay,
when he became angry, he could breathe fire and make
the cuirass of his opponent red-hot. The tradition that
Hadding by eating, on the advice of Odin, the heart of a
wild beast (Saxo says of a lion) gained extraordinary
strength, is also preserved in the form, that when Dieter-
ich was in distress, God sent him eines lowen krafft von
hercsenlichen zoren ("Ecken Ausfarth").

Saxo relates that Hadding on one occasion was invited
to descend into the lower world and see its strange things
(see No. 47). The heathen lower world, with its fields

299

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of bliss and places of torture, became in the Christian
mind synonymous with hell. Hadding's descent to the
lower world, together with the mythic account of his
journey through the air on Odin's horse Sleipner, were
remembered in Christian times in the form that he once
on a black diabolical horse rode to hell. This explains
the remarkable denouement of the Dieterich saga;
namely, that he, the magnanimous and celebrated hero,
was captured by the devil. Otto of Friesingen (first half
of the twelfth century) states that Theodoricus invus
equo sedens ad inferos descendit. The Kaiser chronicle
says that "many saw that the devils took Dieterich and
carried him into the mountain to Vulcan."

In Saxo we read that Hadding once while bathing had
an adventure which threatened him with the most direful
revenge from the gods (see No. 106). Manuscripts of
the Vilkinasaga speak of a fateful bath which Thidrek
took, and connects it with his journey to hell. While
the hero was bathing there came a black horse, the largest
and stateliest ever seen. The king wrapped himself
in his bath towel and mounted the horse. He found, too
late, that the steed was the devil, and he disappeared for
ever.

Saxo tells that Hadding made war on a King Han-
duanus, who had concealed his treasures in the bottom of
a lake, and who was obliged to ransom his life with a
golden treasure of the same weight as his body (Hist.,
41, 42, 67) . Handuanus is a Latinised form of the dwarf
name Andvanr, Andvani. The Sigurd saga has a record
of this event, and calls the dwarf Andvari (Sig. Fafn.,

300

ODIN PUNISHES THE MONSTROUS PROGENY
OF LOKE.

T ' ilin but by his mis-

*—* mating giantess, Angei jccaine the father

. the i'"c:: igard Serpent and

the terrible 11 el, at the sight of which latter living crea!
were immediately stricken dead. Odin was so enraged by t
issues of I.okr's commerce with a giantess, that he had the
brooH brought before him in Asgard, ai. •, the

snake in his powerful arms he flung them i
Hel fell for nine days until she reached llelheim, far beneath

• •iirth, wl Became ruler over the dead. The snake

•nto the ocean that surrounds Midgard, where it
M remain growing until its coils should envelop the earth and

,c end should help to bring about the destruction of
world. The \Yolf was borne away by Tyr an

'din.

Christian

i synonymous with hell. r to the

lower world, together with the mythic his

journey through the air on Odin's .vere

remembered in Christian times in the form >nce

on a black diabolical horse rode to hell. Thi- explains
the remarkable denouement of the Diei ^',

namely, that he, the magnanimous and cek ;ero,

was captured by the devil. Otto of Friesingen (first half

The Kaiser chronicle

«l) T-\' .• • , ,

evils took Dietench and

>o pilksrriU of«. •[ ~/\O \

rmv/ »"'+'•"' *— *

-SOT

• Uile

3>lr,ri* sill .,

aself

*C* l-X*j Hi*-* k Vi* V- W» fc^V»VA Tf \JV*J V*1C *^ . ' l^^t llV X* I K?«IJ./jL'VC4l V\i i?Jl

ever

.riiliC) Ito-mcvol) or! >J«. •

Saxo tells that Hadding made war on a King Han-
duanus, who had concealed his treasures in the bottom of
a lake, and who was obliged to ransom his life with a
en treasure of the same weight as his body (7

Handuanus is a Latinised form of the dwarf
Andvani. The Sigurd saga cord

event, and calls the

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

ii.). The German saga is also able to tell of a war
which Dieterich waged against a dwarf king. The war
has furnished the materials for the saga of "Laurin."
Here, too, the conquered dwarf-king's life is spared, and
Dieterich gets possession of many of his treasures.

In the German as in the Norse saga, Hadding-
tjijodrekr's rival to secure the crown was his brother,
supported by Otacher-Ottar (Svipdag). The tradition
in regard to this, which agrees with the myth, was known
to the author of Anhang des Helderibuchs. But already
in an early day the brother was changed into uncle on
account of the intermixing of historical reminiscences.

The brother's name in the Norse tradition is Gud-
hormr, in the German Ermenrich (Ermanaricus} . Er-
menrich Jormunrekr means, like thjodrekr, a ruler over
many people, a great king. Jordanes already has con-
founded the mythic Jormunrekr-Gudhormr with the his-
torical Gothic King Hermanaricus, whose kingdom was
destroyed by the Huns, and has applied to him the saga
of Svanhild and her brothers Sarus (Sorli) and Ammius
(Hamdir}, a saga which originally was connected with
that of the mythic Jormunrek. The Sigurd epic, which
expanded with plunder from all sources, has added to
the confusion by annexing this saga.

In the Roman authors the form Herminones is found
by the side of Hermiones as the name of one of the three
Teutonic tribes which descended from Mannus. It is
possible, as already indicated, that -horm in Gudhorm is
connected with the form Hermio, and it is probable, as
already pointed out by several linguists, that the Teu-

301

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tonic irmin (jormun, Goth, airmana) is linguistically con-
nected with the word Hermino. In that case, the very
names Gudhormr and Jormunrekr already point as such
to the mythic progenitor of the Hermiones, Herminones,
just as Yngve-Svipdag's name points to the progenitor
of the Ingvceones (Ingsevones), and possibly also Had-
ding's to that of the Istaevones (see No. 25). To the
name Hadding corresponds, as already shown, the Anglo-
Saxon Hearding, the old German Hartung. The Has-
dingi (Asdingi) mentioned by Jordanes were the chief
warriors of the Vandals (Goth. Orig., 22), and there
may be a mythic reason for rediscovering this family
name among an East Teutonic tribe (the Vandals), since
Hadding, according to the myth, had his support among
the East Teutonic tribes. To the form Hasdingi (Goth.
Hasdiggds) the words istcewmes, istvczones, might read-
ily enough correspond, provided the vowel i in the Latin
form can be harmonised with a in the Teutonic. That
the vowel i was an uncertain element may be seen from
the genealogy in Codex La Cava, which calls Istaevo
Ostius, Hostius.

As to geography, both the Roman and Teutonic records
agree that the northern Teutonic tribes were Ingaevones.
In the myths they are Scandinavians and neighbours to
the Ingsevones. In the Beowulf poem the king of the
Danes is called eodor Inguina, the protection of the In-
gsevones, and frca Inguina, the lord of the Ingaevones.
Tacitus says that they live nearest to the ocean (Germ.,
2) ; Pliny says that Cimbrians, Teutons, and Chaucians
were Ingaevones (Hist. Nat., iv. 28). Pomponius Mela

302

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

says that the land of the Cimbrians and Teutons was
washed by the Codan bay (iii. 3). As to the Hermiones
and Istaevones, the former dwelt along the middle Rhine,
and of the latter, who are the East Teutons of mythology,
several tribes had already before the time of Pliny
pressed forward south of the Hermiones to this river.

The German saga-cycle has preserved the tradition
that in the first great battle in which Hadding-thjodrekr
measured his strength with the North and West Teutons
he suffered a great defeat. This is openly avowed in
ihe Dieter ich poem "die Klage." Those poems, on the
other hand, which out of sympathy for their hero give
him victory in this battle ("the Raben battle") neverthe-
less in fact acknowledge that such was not the case, for
they make him return to the East after the battle and
remain there many years, robbed of his crown, before he
makes his second and successful attempt to regain his
kingdom. Thus the "Raben battle" corresponds to the
mythic battle in which Hadding is defeated by Ingaevones
and Hermiones. Besides the "Raben battle" has from
a Teutonic standpoint a trait of universality, and the
German tradition has upon the whole faithfully, and in
harmony with the myth, grouped the allies and heroes
of the hostile brothers. Dieterich is supported by East
Teutonic warriors, and by non-Teutonic people from the
East — from Poland, Wallachia, Russia, Greece, &c. ; Er-
menrich, on the other hand, by chiefs from Thuringia,
Swabia, Hessen, Saxony, the Netherlands, England, and
the North, and, above all, by the Burgundians, who in the
genealogy in the St. Gaelen Codex are counted among the

303

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Hermiones, and in the genealogy in the La Cava Codex
are counted with the Ingaevones. For the mythic de-
scent of the Burgundian dynasty from an uncle of Svip-
dag I shall present evidence in my chapters on the Ivalde
race.

The original identity of Hadding's and Dieterich's
sagas, and their descent from the myth concerning the
earliest antiquity and the patriarchs, I now regard as
demonstrated and established. The war between Had-
ding-Dieterich and Gudhorm-Ermenrich is identical
with the conflict begun by Yngve-Svipdag between the
tribes of the Ingaevones, Hermiones, and Istaevones. It
has also been demonstrated that Halfdan, Gudhorm's,
and Hadding's father, and Yngve-Svipdag's stepfather,
is identical with Mannus. One of the results of this in-
vestigation is, therefore, that the songs about Mannus
and his sons, ancient already in the days of Tacitus, have,
more or less influenced by the centuries, continued to
live far down in the middle ages, and that, not the songs
themselves, but the main features of their contents, have
been preserved to our time, and should again be incor-
porated in our mythology together with the myth in re-
gard to the primeval time, the main outline of which has
been restored, and the final episode of which is the first
great war in the world.

The Norse-Icelandic school, which accepted and de-
veloped the learned hypothesis of the middle age in re-
gard to the immigration of Odin and his Asiamen, is to
blame that the myth, in many respects important, in re-
gard to the olden time and its events in the world of gods

304

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and men — among Aryan myths one of the most impor-
tant, either from a scientific or poetic point of view, that
could be handed down to our time — was thrust aside and
forgotten, The learned hypothesis and the ancient myth
could not be harmonised. For that reason the latter had
to yield. Nor was there anything in this myth that par-
ticularly appealed to the Norse national feeling, and so
could claim mercy. Norway is not at all named in it.
Scania, Denmark, Svithiod (Sweden), and continental
Teutondom are the scene of the mythic events. Among
the many causes co-operating in Christian times, in giving
what is now called "Norse mythology" its present char-
acter, there is not one which has contributed so much as
the rejection of this myth toward giving "Norse mythol-
ogy" the stamp which it hitherto has borne of a narrow,
illiberal town mythology, which, built chiefly on the foun-
dation of the Younger Edda, is, as shall be shown in the
present work, in many respects a caricature of the real
Norse, and at the same time in its main oulines Teutonic,
mythology.

In regard to the ancient Aryan elements in the myth
here presented, see Nos. $2 and 111.

305

IV.

THE MYTH IN REGARD TO THE
LOWER WORLD.

44.

MIDDLE AGE SAGAS WITH ROOTS IN THE MYTH CONCERN-
ING THE LOWER WORLD. ERIK VIDEORLE^S SAGA.

FAR down in Christian times there prevailed among the
Scandinavians the idea that their heathen ancestors had
believed in the existence of a place of joy, from which
sorrow, pain, blemishes, age, sickness, and death were
excluded. This place of joy was called Odainsakr, the-
acre-of-the-not-dead, Jord lifanda manna, the earth of
living men. It was situated not in heaven but below,
either on the surface of the earth or in the lower world,
but it was separated from the lands inhabited by men
in such a manner that it was not impossible, but never-
theless exceeding perilous, to get there.

A saga from the fourteenth century incorporated in
Flateybook, and with a few textual modifications in For-
nald. Saga, iii., tells the following:

Erik, the son of a petty Norse king, one Christmas
Eve, made the vow to seek out Odainsaker, and the fame
of it spread over all Norway. In company with a Dan-
ish prince, who also was named Erik, he betook himself

306

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

first to Miklagard (Constantinople), where the king en-
gaged the young men in his service, and was greatly bene-
fited by their warlike skill. One day the king talked with
the Norwegian Erik about religion, and the result was
that the latter surrendered the faith of his ancestors and
accepted baptism. He told his royal teacher of the vow
he had taken to find Odainsaker, — "frd honum heyrdi ver
sagt a voru landi" — and asked him if he knew where it
was situated. The king believed that Odainsaker was
identical with Paradise, and said it lies in the East be-
yond the farthest boundaries of India, but that no one was
able to get there because it was enclosed by a fire-wall,
which aspires to heaven itself. Still Erik was bound by
his vow, and with his Danish namesake he set out on
his journey, after the king had instructed them as well as
he was able in regard to the way, and had given them a
letter of recommendation to the authorities and princes
through whose territories they had to pass. They trav-
elled through Syria and the immense and wonderful
India, and came to a dark country where the stars are
seen all day long. After having traversed its deep for-
ests, they saw when it began to grow light a river, over
which there was a vaulted stone bridge. On the other
side of the river there was a plain, from which came sweet
fragrance. Erik conjectured that the river was the one
called by the king in Miklagard Pison, and which rises in
Paradise. On the stone bridge lay a dragon with wide
open mouth. The Danish prince advised that they re-
turn, for he considered it impossible to conquer the dra-
gon or to pass it. But the Norwegian Erik seized one

307

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

of his men by one hand, and rushed with his sword in
the other against the dragon. They were seen to van-
ish between the jaws of the monster. With the other
companions the Danish prince then returned by the same
route as he had come, and after many years he got back
to his native land.

When Erik and his fellow-countryman had been swal-
lowed by the dragon, they thought themselves enveloped
in smoke; but it was scattered, and they were unharmed,
and saw before them the great plain lit up by the sun and
covered with flowers. There flowed rivers of honey,
the air was still, but just above the ground were felt
breezes that conveyed the fragrance of the flowers. It
is never dark in this country, and objects cast no shadow.
Both the adventurers went far into the country in order
to find, if possible, inhabited parts. But the country
seemed to be uninhabited. Still they discovered a tower
in the distance. They continued to travel in that direc-
tion, and on coming nearer they found that the tower
was suspended in the air, without foundation or pillars.
A ladder led up to it. Within the tower there was a
room, carpeted with velvet, and there stood a beautiful
table with delicious food in silver dishes, and wine in
golden goblets. There were also splendid beds. Both
the men were now convinced that they had come to
Odainsaker, and they thanked God that they had reached
their destination. They refreshed themselves and laid
themselves to sleep. While Erik slept there came to him
a beautiful lad, who called him by name, and said he was
one of the angels who guarded the gates of Paradise,

308

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

and also Erik's guardian angel, who had been at his side
when he vowed to go in search of Odainsaker. He asked
whether Erik wished to remain where he now was or to
return home. Erik wished to return to report what he
had seen. The angel informed him that Odainsaker, or
jord lifanda manna, where he now was, was not the same
place as Paradise, for to the latter only spirits could come,
and the land of spirits, Paradise, was so glorious that, in
comparison, Odainsaker seemed like a desert. Still, these
two regions are on each other's borders, and the river
which Erik had seen has its source in Paradise. The
angel permitted the two travellers to remain in Odain-
saker for six days to rest themselves. Then they re-
turned by way of Miklagard to Norway, and there Erik
was called vid-fdrli, the far-travelled.

In regard to Erik's genealogy, the saga states (For-
nald. Saga, iii. 519) that his father's name was Thrand,
that his aunt (mother's sister) was a certain Svanhvit,
and that he belonged to the race of Thjasse's daughter
Skade. Further on in the domain of the real myth, we
shall discover an Erik who belongs to Thjasse's family,
and whose mother is a swan-maid (goddess of growth).
This latter Erik also succeeded in seeing Odainsaker (see
Nos. 102, 103).

45.

MIDDLE AGE SAGAS (continued}. ICELANDIC SOURCES IN
REGARD TO GUDMUND, KING ON THE GLITTERING
PLAINS.

In the saga of Hervor, Odainsaker is mentioned, and

309

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

there without any visible addition of Christian elements.
Gudmund (Godmundr} was the name of a king in Jotun-
heim. His home was called Gnmd, but the district in
which it was situated was called the Glittering Plains
(Glasisvellir} . He was wise and mighty, and in a
heathen sense pious, and he and his men became so old
that they lived many generations. Therefore, the story
continues, the heathens believed that Odainsaker was sit-
uated in his country. "That place (Odainsaker) is for
everyone who comes there so healthy that sickness and
age depart, and no one ever dies there."

According to the saga-author, Jotunheim is situated
north from Halogaland, along the shores of Gandvik.
The wise and mighty Gudmund died after he had lived
half a thousand years. After his death the people wor-
shipped him as a god, and offered sacrifices to him.

The same Gudmund is mentioned in Herrod's and
Bose's saga as a ruler of the Glittering Plains, who was
very skilful in the magic arts. The Glittering Plains
are here said to be situated near Bjarmaland, just as in
Thorstein Baearmagn's saga, in which king Gudmund's
kingdom, Glittering Plains, is a country tributary to
Jotunheim, whose ruler is Geirrod.

In the history of Olaf Trygveson, as it is given in
Flateybook, the following episode is incorporated. The
Northman Helge Thoreson was sent on a commercial
journey to the far North on the coast of Finmark, but
he got lost in a great forest. There he met twelve red-
clad young maidens on horseback, and the horses' trap-
pings shone like gold. The chief one of the maidens was

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Ingeborg, the daughter of Gudmund on the Glittering
Plains. The young maidens raised a splendid tent and
set a table with dishes of silver and gold. Helge was
invited to remain, and he stayed three days with Inge-
borg. Then Gudmund's daughters got ready to leave;
but before they parted Helge received from Ingeborg two
chests full of gold and silver. With these he returned
to his father, but mentioned to nobody how he had ob-
tained them. The next Yule night there came a great
storm, during which two men carried Helge away, none
knew whither. His sorrowing father reported this to
Olaf Trygveson. The year passed. Then it happened
at Yule that Helge came in to the king in the hall, and
with him two strangers, who handed Olaf two gold-plated
horns. They said they were gifts from Gudmund on
the Glittering Plains. Olaf filled the horns with good
drink and handed them to the messengers. Meanwhile
he had commanded the bishop who was present to bless
the drink. The result was that the heathen beings, who
were Gudmund's messengers, cast the horns away, and
at the same time there was great noise and confusion in
the hall. The fire was extinguished, and Gudmund's
men disappeared with Helge, after having slain three of
King Olaf's men. Another year passed. Then there
came to the king two men, who brought Helge with them,
and disappeared again. Helge was at that time blind.
The king asked him many questions, and Helge ex-
plained that he had spent most happy days at Gudmund's ;
but King Olaf's prayers had at length made it difficult
for Gudmund and his daughter to retain him, and before

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

his departure Ingeborg picked his eyes out, in order that
Norway's daughters should not fall in love with them.
With his gifts Gudmund had intended to deceive King
Olaf ; but upon the whole Helge had nothing but good
to report about this heathen.

46.

MIDDLE AGE SAGAS (continued}. SAXO CONCERNING
THIS SAME GUDMUND, RULER OE THE LOWER WORLD.

Saxo, the Danish historian, also knows Gudmund. He
relates (Hist. Dan., viii.) that King Gorm had resolved
to find a mysterious country in regard to which there
were many reports in the North. Incredible treasures
were preserved in that land. A certain Geruthus, known
in the traditions, dwelt there, but the way thither was
full of dangers and well-nigh inaccessible for mortals.
They who had any knowledge of the situation of the land
insisted that it was necessary to sail across the ocean
surrounding the earth, leave sun and stars behind, and
make a journey sub Chao, before reaching the land which
is deprived of the light of day, and over whose mountains
and valleys darkness broods. First there was a perilous
voyage to be made, and then a journey in the lower world.
With the experienced sailor Thorkillus as his guide, King
Gorm left Denmark with three ships and a numerous
company, sailed past Halogaland, and came, after strange
adventures on his way, to Bjarmaland, situated beyond
the known land of the same name, and anchored near its

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coast. In this Bjarmia ulterior it is always cold; to its
snow-clad fields there comes no summer warmth, through
its deep wild forests flow rapid foaming rivers which well
forth from the rocky recesses, and the woods are full of
wild beasts, the like of which are unknown elsewhere.
The inhabitants are monsters with whom it is dangerous
for strangers to enter into conversation, for from uncon-
sidered words they get power to do harm. Therefore Thor-
killus was to do the talking alone for all his companions.
The place for anchoring he had chosen in such a manner
that they thence had the shortest journey to Geruthus.
In the evening twilight the travellers saw a man of un-
usual size coming to meet them, and to their joy he
greeted them by name. Thorkillus informed them that
they should regard the coming of this man as a good
omen, for he was the brother of Geruthus, Guthmundus,
a friendly person and the most faithful protector in peril.
When Thorkillus had explained the perpetual silence of
his companions by saying that they were too bashful to
enter into conversation with one whose language they did
not understand, Guthmundus invited them to be his guests
and led them by paths down along a river. Then they
came to a place where a golden bridge was built across
the river. The Danes felt a desire to cross the bridge
and visit the land on the other side, but Guthmundus
warned them that nature with the bed of this stream has
drawn a line between the human and superhuman and
mysterious, and that the ground on the other side was by
a sacred order proclaimed unlawful for the feet of mor-

21 313

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

tals.* They therefore continued the march on that side
of the river on which they had hitherto gone, and so came
to the mysterious dwelling of Guthmundus, where a feast
was spread before them, at which twelve of his sons, all
of noble appearance, and as many daughters, most fair
of face, waited upon them.

But the feast was a peculiar one. The Danes heeded
the advice of Thorkillus not to come into too close con-
tact with their strange table-companions or the servants,
and instead of tasting the courses presented of food and
drink, they ate and drank of the provisions they had taken
with them from home. This they did because Thor-
killus knew that mortals who accept the courtesies here
offered them lose all memory of the past and remain for
ever among "these non-human and dismal beings." Dan-
ger threatened even those who were weak in reference to
the enticing loveliness of the daughters of Guthmundus.
He offered King Gorm a daughter in marriage. Gorm
himself was prudent enough to decline the honour; but
four of his men could not resist the temptation, and had
to pay the penalty with the loss of their memory and with
enfeebled minds.

One more trial awaited them. Guthmundus mentioned
to the king that he had a villa, and invited Gorm to accom-
pany him thither and taste of the delicious fruits. Thor-
killus, who had a talent for inventing excuses, now found
one for the king's lips. The host, though displeased with
the reserve of the guests, still continued to show them
friendliness, and when they expressed their desire to see

"Cujus transeundi cupidos revocavit, docens, eo alveo humana a mon-
strosis rerum secrevisse naturam, nee mortalibus ultra fas esse vestigiis.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the domain of Geruthus, he accompanied them all to the
river, conducted them across it, and promised to wait there
until they returned.

The land which they now entered was the home of
terrors. They had not gone very far before they discov-
ered before them a city, which seemed to be built of dark
mists. Human heads were raised on stakes which sur-
rounded the bulwarks of the city. Wild dogs, whose
rage Thorkillus, however, knew how to calm, kept watch
outside of the gates. The gates were located high up in
the bulwark, and it was necessary to climb up on ladders
in order to get to them. Within the city was a crowd of
beings horrible to look at and to hear, and filth and rot-
tenness and a terrible stench were everywhere. Further
in was a sort of mountain-fastness. When they had
reached its entrance the travellers were overpowered by
its awful aspect, but Thorkillus inspired them with cour-
age. At the same time he warned them most strictly
not to touch any of the treasures that might entice their
eyes. All that sight and soul can conceive as terrible and
loathsome was gathered within this rocky citadel. The
door-frames were covered with the soot of centuries, the
walls were draped with filth, the roofs were composed of
sharp stings, the floors were made of serpents encased in
foulness. At the thresholds crowds of monsters acted
as doorkeepers and were very noisy. On iron benches,
surrounded by a hurdle-work of lead, there lay giant
monsters which looked like lifeless images. Higher up
in a rocky niche sat the aged Geruthus, with his body
pierced and nailed to the rock, and there lay also three

315

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

women with their backs broken. Thorkillus explained
that it was this Geruthus whom the god Thor had pierced
with a red-hot iron; the women had also received their
punishment from the same god.

When the travellers left these places of punishment
they came to a place where they saw cisterns of mead
(dolia) in great numbers. These were plated with seven
sheets of gold, and above them hung objects of silver,
round as to form, from which shot numerous braids down
into the cisterns. Near by was found a gold-plated
tooth of some strange animal, and near it, again, there
lay an immense horn decorated with pictures and flash-
ing with precious stones, and also an arm-ring of great
size. Despite the warnings, three of Gorm's men laid
greedy hands on these works of art. But the greed got
its reward. The arm-ring changed into a venomous ser-
pent; the horn into a dragon, which killed their robbers;
the tooth became a sword, which pierced the heart of him
who bore it. The others who witnessed the fate of their
comrades expected that they too, although innocent, should
meet with some misfortune. But their anxiety seemed
unfounded, and when they looked about them again they
found the entrance to another treasury, which contained
a wealth of immense weapons, among which was kept a
royal mantle, together with a splendid head-gear and a
belt, the finest work of art. Thorkillus himself could not
govern his greed when he saw these robes. He took
hold of the mantle, and thus gave the signal to the others
to plunder. But then the building shook in its founda-
tions; the voices of shrieking women were heard, who

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asked if these robbers were longer to be tolerated; be-
ings which hitherto had been lying as if half-dead or
lifeless started up and joined other spectres who attacked
the Danes. The latter would all have lost their lives
had not their retreat been covered by two excellent arch-
ers whom Gorm had with him. But of the men, nearly
three hundred in number, with whom the king had ven-
tured into this part of the lower world, there remained
only twenty when they finally reached the river, where
Guthmundus, true to his promise, was waiting for them,
and carried them in a boat to his own domain. Here he
proposed to them that they should remain, but as he could
not persuade them, he gave them presents and let them re-
turn to their ships in safety the same way as they had
come.

47.

MIDDLE AGE SAGAS (continued). FJALLERUS AND HAD-
INGUS (HADDING) IN THE LOWER WORLD.

Two other Danish princes have, according to Saxo,
been permitted to see a subterranean world, or Odain-
saker. Saxo calls the one Fjallerus, and makes him a
sub-regent in Scania. The question who this Fjallerus
was in the mythology is discussed in another part of this
work (see No. 92). According to Saxo he was banished
from the realm by King Amlethus, the son of Horven-
dillus, and so retired to Undensakre (Odainsaker), "a
place which is unknown to our people" (Hist. Dan. iv.).

The other of these two is King Hadingus (Hist. Dan.,

3*7

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

i.), the above-mentioned Hadding, son of Half dan. One
winter's day, while Hadding sat at the hearth, there rose
out of the ground the form of a woman, who had her lap
full of cowbanes, and showed them as if she was about
to ask whether the king would like to see that part of
the world where, in the midst of winter, so fresh flowers
could bloom. Hadding desired this. Then she wrapped
him in her mantle and carried him away down into the
lower world. "The gods of the lower world," says Saxo,
"must have determined that he should be transferred liv-
ing to those places, which are not to be sought until after
death." In the beginning the journey was through a
territory wrapped in darkness, fogs, and mists. Then
Hadding perceived that they proceeded along a path
"which is daily trod by the feet of walkers." The path
led to a river, in whose rapids spears and other weapons
were tossed about, and over which there was a bridge.
Before reaching this river Hadding had seen from the
path he travelled a region in which "a few" or "certain"
(quidam), but very noble beings (proceres) were walk-
ing, dressed in beautiful frocks and purple mantles.
Thence the woman brought him to a plain which glittered
as in sunshine (loca aprica, translation of "The Glittering
Plains"), and there grew the plants which she had shown
him. This was one side of the river. On the other side
there was bustle and activity. There Hadding saw two
armies engaged in battle. They were, his fair guide ex-
plained to him, the souls of warriors who had fallen in
battle, and now imitated the sword-games they had played
on earth. Continuing their journey, they reached a place

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

surrounded by a wall, which was difficult to pass through
or to surmount. Nor did the woman make any effort
to enter there, either alone or with him: "It would not
have been possible for the smallest or thinnest physical
being." They therefore returned the way they had
come. But before this, and while they stood near the
wall, the woman demonstrated to Hadding by an experi-
ment that the walled place had a strange nature. She
jerked the head off a chicken which she had taken with
her, and threw it over the wall, but the head came back
to the neck of the chicken, and with a distinct crow it an-
nounced "that it had regained its life and breath."

48.

MIDDLE AGE SAGAS (continued). A FRISIAN SAGA IN
ADAM OP BREMEN.

The series of traditions above narrated in regard to
Odainsaker, the Glittering Plains, and their ruler Gud-
mund, and also in regard to the neighbouring domains
as habitations of the souls of the dead, extends, so far as
the age of their recording in writing is concerned, through
a period of considerable length. The latest cannot be
referred to an earlier date than the fourteenth century;
the oldest were put in writing toward the close of the
twelfth. Saxo began working on his history between the
years 1179 and 1186. Thus these literary evidences span
about two centuries, and stop near the threshold of heath-
endom. The generation to which Saxo's father belonged
witnessed the crusade which Sigurd the Crusader made in

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Eastern Smaland, in whose forests the Asa-doctrine until
that time seems to have prevailed, and the Odinic reli-
gion is believed to have flourished in the more remote
parts of Sweden even in Saxo's own time.

We must still add to this series of documents one which
is to carry it back another century, and even more. This
document is a saga told by Adam of Bremen in De Situ
Dani&. Adam, or, perhaps, before him, his authority
Adalbert (appointed archbishop in the year 1043), has
turned the saga into history, and made it as credible as
possible by excluding all distinctly mythical elements.
And as it, doubtless for this reason, neither mentions a
place which can be compared with Odainsaker or with the
Glittering Plains, I have omitted it among the literary
evidences above quoted. Nevertheless, it reminds us in
its main features of Saxo's account of Gorm's journey of
discovery, and its relation both to it and to the still older
myth shall be shown later (see No. 94). In the form in
which Adam heard the saga, its point of departure has
been located in Friesland, not in Denmark. Frisian no-
blemen make a voyage past Norway up to the farthest
limits of the Arctic Ocean, get into a darkness which the
eyes scarcely can penetrate, are exposed to a maelstrom
which threatens to drag them down ad Chaos, but finally
come quite unexpectedly out of darkness and cold to an
island which, surrounded as by a wall of high rocks, con-
tains subterranean caverns, wherein giants lie concealed.
At the entrances of the underground dwellings lay a
great number of tubs and vessels of gold and other metals
which "to mortals seem rare and valuable." As much

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

as the adventurers could carry of these treasures they took
with them and hastened to their ships. But the giants,
represented by great dogs, rushed after them. One of
the Frisians was overtaken and torn into pieces before the
eyes of the others. The others succeeded, thanks to our
Lord and to Saint Willehad, in getting safely on board
their ships.

49.

ANALYSIS OF THE SAGAS MENTIONED IN NOS. 44-48.

If we consider the position of the authors or recorders
of these sagas in relation to the views they present in re-
gard to Odainsaker and the Glittering Plains, then we
find that they themselves, with or without reason, believe
that these views are from a heathen time and of heathen
origin. The saga of Erik Vidforle states that its hero
had in his own native land, and in his heathen environ-
ment, heard reports about Odainsaker. The Miklagard
king who instructs the prince in the doctrines of Chris-
tianity knows, on the other hand, nothing of such a coun-
try. He simply conjectures that the Odainsaker of the
heathens must be the same as the Paradise of the Chris-
tians, and the saga later makes this conjecture turn out
to be incorrect.

The author of Hervor's saga mentions Odainsaker as a
heathen belief, and tries to give reasons why it was be-
lieved in heathen times that Odainsaker was situated
within the limits of Gudmund's kingdom, the Glittering
Plains. The reason is: "Gudmund and his men be-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

came so old that they lived through several generations
(Gudmund lived five hundred years), and therefore the
heathens believed that Odainsaker was situated in his do-
main."

The man who compiled the legend about Helge Thore-
son connects it with the history of King Olaf Trygveson,
and pits this first king of Norway, who laboured for the
introduction of Christianity, as a representative of the
new and true doctrine against King Gudmund of the
Glittering Plains as the representative of the heathen doc-
trine. The author would not have done this if he had
not believed that the ruler of the Glittering Plains had
his ancestors in heathendom.

The saga of Thorstein Baearmagn puts Gudmund and
the Glittering Plains in a tributary relation to Jotunheim
and to Geirrod, the giant, well known in the mythology.

Saxo makes Gudmund Geirrod's (Geruthus') brother,
and he believes he is discussing ancient traditions when
he relates Gorm's journey of discovery and Hadding's
journey to Jotunheim. Gorm's reign is referred by
Saxo to the period immediately following the reign of
the mythical King Sno (Snow) and the emigration of
the Longobardians. Hadding's descent to the lower
world occurred, according to Saxo, in an antiquity many
centuries before King Snow. Hadding is, in Saxo, one
of the first kings of Denmark, the grandson of Skjold,
progenitor of the Skjoldungs.

The saga of Erik Vidforle makes the way to Odain-
saker pass through Syria, India, and an unknown land
which wants the light of the sun, and where the stars

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

are visible all day long. On the other side of Odain-
saker, and bordering on it, lies the land of the happy
spirits, Paradise.

That these last ideas have been influenced by Chris-
tianity would seem to be sufficiently clear. Nor do we
find a trace of Syria, India, and Paradise as soon as we
leave this saga and pass to the others, in the chain of
which it forms one of the later links. All the rest agree
in transferring to the uttermost North the land which
must be reached before the journey can be continued to
the Glittering Plains and Odainsaker. Hervor's saga
says that the Glittering Plains and Odainsaker are situ-
ated north of Halogaland, in Jotunheim; Herrod's and
Bose's saga states that they are situated in the vicinity
of Bjarmaland. The saga of Thorstein Bsearmagn says
that they are a kingdom subject to Geirrod in Jotunheim.
Gorm's saga in Saxo says it is necessary to sail past Halo-
galand north to a Bjarmia ulterior in order to get to the
kingdoms of Gudmund and Geirrod. The saga of Helge
Thoreson makes its hero meet the daughters of Gud-
mund, the ruler of the Glittering Plains, after a voyage to
Finmarken. Hadding's saga in Saxo makes the Danish
king pay a visit to the unknown but wintry cold land of
the "Nitherians," when he is invited to make a journey
to the lower world. Thus the older and common view
was that he who made the attempt to visit the Glittering
Plains and Odainsaker must first penetrate the regions
of the uttermost North, known only by hearsay.

Those of the sagas which give us more definite local
descriptions in addition to this geographical information

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

all agree that the region which forms, as it were, a fore-
ground to the Glittering Plains and Odainsaker is a land
over which the darkness of night broods. As just indi-
cated, Erik Vidforle's saga claims that the stars there
are visible all day long. Gorm's saga in Saxo makes the
Danish adventurers leave sun and stars behind to continue
the journey sub Chao. Darkness, fogs, and mists en-
velop Hadding before he gets sight of the splendidly-clad
proceres who dwell down there, and the shining meadows
whose flowers are never visited by winter. The Frisian
saga in Adam of Bremen also speaks of a gloom which
must be penetrated ere one reaches the land where rich
giants dwell in subterranean caverns.

Through this darkness one comes, according to the
saga of Erik Vidforle, to a plain full of flowers, delicious
fragrances, rivers of honey (a Biblical idea, but see Nos.
89, 123), and perpetual light. A river separates this
plain from the land of the spirits.

Through the same darkness, according to Gorm's saga,
one comes to Gudmund's Glittering Plains, where there
is a pleasure-farm bearing delicious fruits, while in that
Bjarmaland whence the Glittering Plains can be reached
reign eternal winter and cold. A river separates the Glit-
tering Plains from two or more other domains, of which
at least one is the home of departed souls. There is a
bridge of gold across the river to another region, "which
separates that which is mortal from the superhuman," and
on whose soil a mortal being must not set his foot. Fur-
ther on one can pass in a boat across the river to a land
which is the place of punishment for the damned and a

resort of ghosts.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Through the same darkness one comes, according to
Hadding's saga, to a subterranean land where flowers
grow in spite of the winter which reigns on the surface
of the earth. The land of flowers is separated from the
Elysian fields of those fallen in battle by a river which
hurls about in its eddies spears and other weapons.

These statements from different sources agree with
each other in their main features. They agree that the
lower world is divided into two main parts by a river,
and that departed souls are found only on the farther
side of the river.

The other main part on this side the river thus has
another purpose than that of receiving the happy or
damned souls of the dead. There dwells, according to
Gorm's saga, the giant Gudmund, with his sons and
daughters. There are also the Glittering Plains, since
these, according to Hervor's, Herrod's, Thorstein
Bsearmagn's, and Helge Thoreson's sagas, are ruled by
Gudmund.

Some of the accounts cited say that the Glittering
Plains are situated in Jotunheim. This statement does
not contradict the fact that they are situated in the lower
world. The myths mention two Jotunheims, and hence
the Eddas employ the plural form, Jotunheimar. One
of the Jotunheims is located on the surface of the earth
in the far North and East, separated from the Midgard
inhabited by man by the uttermost sea or the Elivogs
(Gylfaginning, 8). The other Jotunheim is subterra-
nean. According to Vafthrudnismal (31), one of the
roots of the world-tree extends down "to the frost-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

giants." Urd and her sisters, who guard one of the foun-
tains of Ygdrasil's roots, are giantesses. Mimer, who
guards another fountain in the lower world, is called a
giant. That part of the world which is inhabited by the
goddesses of fate and by Mimer is thus inhabited by
giants, and is a subterranean Jotunheim. Both these
Jotunheims are connected with each other. From the
upper there is a path leading to the lower. Therefore
those traditions recorded in a Christian age, which we
are here discussing, have referred to the Arctic Ocean
and the uttermost North as the route for those who have
the desire and courage to visit the giants of the lower
world.

When it is said in Hadding's saga that he on the other
side of the subterranean river saw the shades of heroes
fallen by the sword arrayed in line of battle and contend-
ing with each other, then this is no contradiction of the
myth, according to which the heroes chosen on the bat-
tle-field come to Asgard and play their warlike games on
the plains of the world of the gods.

In Voluspa (str. 24) we read that when the first "folk"-
war broke out in the world, the citadel of Odin and his
clan was stormed by the Vans, who broke through its
bulwark and captured Asgard. In harmony with this,
Saxo (Hist., i.) relates that at the time when King Had-
ding reigned Odin was banished from his power and lived
for some time in exile (see Nos. 36-41).

It is evident that no great battles can have been
fought, and that there could not have been any great
number of sword-fallen men, before the first great "folk"-

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

war broke out in the world. Otherwise this war would
not have been the first. Thus Valhal has not before this
war had those hosts of einherjes who later are feasted in
Valfather's hall. But as Odin, after the breaking out
of this war, is banished from Valhal and Asgard, and
does not return before peace is made between the Asas
and Vans, then none of the einherjes chosen by him
could be received in Valhal during the war. Hence it
follows that the heroes fallen in this war, though chosen
by Odin, must have been referred to some other place
than Asgard (excepting, of course, all those chosen by
the Vans, in case they chose einherjes, which is probable,
for the reason that the Vanadis Freyja gets, after the
reconciliation with Odin, the right to divide with him the
choice of the slain). This other place can nowhere else
be so appropriately looked for as in the lower world,
which we know was destined to receive the souls of the
dead. And as Hadding, who, according to Saxo, de-
scended to the lower world, is, according to Saxo, the
same Hadding during whose reign Odin was banished
from Asgard, then it follows that the statement of the
saga, making him see in the lower world those warlike
games which else are practised on Asgard's plains, far
from contradicting the myth, on the contrary is a conse-
quence of the connection of the mythical events.

The river which is mentioned in Erik Vidforle's,
Gorm's, and Hadding's sagas has its prototype in the
mythic records. When Hermod on Sleipner rides to
the lower world (Gylfaginning, 10) he first journeys
through a dark country (compare above) and then comes

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

to the river Gjoll, over which there is the golden bridge
called the Gjallar bridge. On the other side of Gjoll
is the Helgate, which leads to the realm of the dead. In
Gorm's saga the bridge across the river is also of gold,
and it is forbidden mortals to cross to the other side.

A subterranean river hurling weapons in its eddies is
mentioned in Voluspa, 33. In Hadding's saga we also
read of a weapon-hurling river which forms the boun-
dary of the Elysium of those slain by the sword.

In Vegtamskvida is mentioned an underground dog,
bloody about the breast, coming from Nifelhel, the
proper place of punishment. In Gorm's saga the bul-
wark around the city of the damned is guarded by great
dogs. The word "nifel" (nifl, the German Nebel},
which forms one part of the word Nifelhel, means mist,
fog. In Gorm's saga the city in question is most like a
cloud of vapour (vaporanti maxime nubi simile}.

Saxo's description of that house of torture, which is
found within the city, is not unlike Voluspa's description
of that dwelling of torture called Nastrand. In Saxo
the floor of the house consists of serpents wattled to-
gether, and the roof of sharp stings. In Voluspa the
hall is made of serpents braided together, whose heads
from above spit venom down on those dwelling there.
Saxo speaks of soot a century old on the door frames;
Voluspa of Ijorar, air- and smoke-openings in the roof
(see further Nos. 77 and 78).

Saxo himself points out that the Geruthus (Geirrodr)
mentioned by him, and his famous daughters, belong to
the myth about the Asa-god Thor. That Geirrod after

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

his death is transferred to the lower world is no contra-
diction to the heathen belief, according to which beauti-
ful or terrible habitations await the dead, not only of men
but also of other beings. Compare Gylfaginning, ch.
46, where Thor with one blow of his Mjolner sends a
giant nidr undir Niflhel (see further, No. 60).

As Mimer's and Urd's fountains are found in the lower
world (see Nos. 63, 93), and as Mimer is mentioned as
the guardian of Heimdal's horn and other treasures, it
might be expected that these circumstances would not be
forgotten in those stories from Christian times which
have been cited above and found to have roots in the
myths.

When in Saxo's saga about Gorm the Danish adventur-
ers had left the horrible city of fog, they came to another
place in the lower world where the gold-plated mead-cis-
terns were found. The Latin word used by Saxo, which I
translate with cisterns of mead, is dolium. In the class-
ical Latin this word is used in regard to wine-cisterns
of so immense a size that they were counted among the
immovables, and usually were sunk in the cellar floors.
They were so large that a person could live in such a
cistern, and this is also reported as having happened.
That the word dolium still, in Saxo's time had a similar
meaning appears from a letter quoted by Du Cange,
written by Saxo's younger contemporary, Bishop Geb-
hard. The size is therefore no obstacle to Saxo's using
this word for a wine-cistern to mean the mead-wells in
the lower world of Teutonic mythology. The question
now is whether he actually did so, or whether the sub-

22 329

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

terranean dolia in question are objects in regard to which
our earliest mythic records have left us in ignorance.

In Saxo's time, and earlier, the epithets by which the
mead-wells — Urd's and Mimer's — and their contents are
mentioned in mythological songs had come to be applied
also to those mead-buckets which Odin is said to have
emptied in the halls of the giant Fjalar or Suttung.
This application also lay near at hand, since these wells
and these vessels contained the same liquor, and since it
originally, as appears from the meaning of the words,
was the liquor, and not the place where the liquor was
kept, to which the epithets Odrczrir, Bodn, and Son ap-
plied. In Havamal (107) Odin expresses his joy that
Odrarir has passed out of the possession of the giant
Fjalar and can be of use to the beings of the upper world.
But if we may trust Bragar. (ch. 5), it is the drink and
not the empty vessels that Odin takes with him to Valhal.
On this supposition, it is the drink and not one of the ves-
sels which in Havamal is called Odrarir. In Havamal
(140) Odin relates how he, through self-sacrifice and suf-
fering, succeeded in getting runic songs up from the deep,
and also a drink dipped out of Odrarir. He who gives
him the songs and the drink, and accordingly is the ruler
of the fountain of the drink, is a man, "Bolthorn's cele-
brated son." Here again Odrserer is one of the subterra-
nean fountains, and no doubt Mimer's, since the one who
pours out the drink is a man. But in Forspjalsljod (2)
Urd's fountain is also called Odrserer (Odhr<zrir Urdar).
Paraphrases for the liquor of poetry, such as "Bodn's
growing billow" (Einar Skalaglam) and "Son's reed-

330

grown grass edge" (Eilif Gudrunson), point to foun-
tains or wells, not to vessels. Meanwhile a satire was
composed before the time of Saxo and Sturlason about
Odin's adventure at Fjalar's, and the author of this song,
the contents of which the Younger Edda has preserved,
calls the vessels which Odin empties at the giant's
Odhrcerir, Bodn, and Son (Brogarsedur, 6). Saxo, who
reveals a familiarity with the genuine heathen, or sup-
posed heathen, poems handed down to his time, may
thus have seen the epithets Odrcerir, Bodn, and Son ap-
plied both to the subterranean mead-wells and to a giant's
mead-vessels. The greater reason he would have for
selecting the Latin dolium to express an idea that can
be accommodated to both these objects.

Over these mead-reservoirs there hang, according to
Saxo's description, round-shaped objects of silver, which
in close braids drop down and are spread around the
seven times gold-plated walls of the mead-cisterns.*

Over Mimer's and Urd's fountains hang the roots of
the ash Ygdrasil, which sends its root-knots and root-
threads down into their waters. But not only the root-
lets sunk in the water, but also the roots from which they
are suspended, partake of the waters of the fountains.
The norns take daily from the water and sprinkle the
stem of the tree therewith, "and the water is so holy,"
says Gylfaginning (16), "that everything that is put in
the well (consequently, also, all that which the norns
daily sprinkle with the water) becomes as white as the

*Inde digressis dolia septem zonis aureis circumligata panduntur,
quibus pensiles ex argento circuli crebros inseruerant nexus.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

membrane between the egg and the egg-shell." Also the
root over Mimer's fountain is sprinkled with its water
(Volusp., Cod. R., 28), and this water, so far as its colour
is concerned, seems to be of the same kind as that in Urd's
fountain, for the latter is called hvitr aurr (Volusp., 18)
and the former runs in aurgum forsi upon its root of the
world-tree (Volusp., 28). The adjective aurigr, which
describes a quality of the water in Mimer's fountain, is
formed from the noun aurr, with which the liquid is de-
scribed which waters the root over Urd's fountain.
Ygdrasil's roots, as far up as the liquid of the wells can
get to them, thus have a colour like that of "the mem-
brane between the egg and the egg-shell," and conse-
quently recall both as to position, form, and colour the
round-shaped objects "of silver" which, according to
Saxo, hang down and are intertwined in the mead-reser-
voirs of the lower world.

Mimer's fountain contains, as we know, the purest
mead — the liquid of inspiration, of poetry, of wisdom, of
understanding.

Near by Ygdrasil, according to Voluspa (27), Heim-
dal's horn is concealed. The seeress in Voluspa knows
that it is hid "beneath the hedge-o'ershadowing holy
tree."

Veit hon Heimdallar
hljod um folgit
undir heidvonum
helgum badmi.

Near one of the mead-cisterns in the lower world

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Gorm's men see a horn ornamented with pictures and
flashing with precious stones.

Among the treasures taken care of by Mimer is the
world's foremost sword and a wonderful arm-ring,
smithied by the same master as made the sword (see Nos.
87, 98, 101).

Near the gorgeous horn Gorm's men see a gold-plated
tooth of an animal and an arm-ring. The animal tooth
becomes a sword when it is taken into the hand.* Near
by is a treasury filled with a large number of weapons
and a royal robe. Mimer is known in mythology as a
collector of treasures. He is therefore called Hodd-
mimir, Hoddropnir, Baugregin.

Thus Gorm and his men have on their journeys in the
lower world seen not only Nastrand's place of punish-
ment in Nifelhel, but also the holy land, where Mimer
reigns.

When Gorm and his men desire to cross the golden
bridge and see the wonders to which it leads, Gudmund
prohibits it. When they in another place farther up de-
sire to cross the river to see what there is beyond, he con-
sents and has them taken over in a boat. He does not
deem it proper to show them the unknown land at the
golden bridge, but it is within the limits of his authority
to let them see the places of punishment and those re-
gions which contain the mead-cisterns and the treasure
chambers. The sagas call him the king on the Glitter-
ing Plains, and as the Glittering Plains are situated in
the lower world, he must be a lower world ruler.

*The word 6iti = a tooth (cp. bite) becomes in the composition leggbiti,
the name of a sword.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Two of the sagas, Helge Thoreson's and Gorm's, cast
a shadow on Gudmund's character. In the former this
shadow does not produce confusion or contradiction. The
saga is a legend which represents Christianity, with Olaf
Trygveson as its apostle, in conflict with heathenism, rep-
resented by Gudmund. It is therefore natural that the
latter cannot be presented in the most favourable light.
Olaf destroys with his prayers the happiness of Gud-
mund's daughter. He compels her to abandon her lover,
and Gudmund, who is unable to take revenge in any other
manner, tries to do so, as is the case with so many of the
characters in saga and history, by treachery. This is
demanded by the fundamental idea and tendency of the
legend. What the author of the legend has heard about
Gudmund's character from older sagamen, or what he
has read in records, he does not, however, conceal with
silence, but admits that Gudmund, aside from his heathen
religion and grudge towards Olaf Trygveson, was a man
in whose home one might fare well and be happy.

Saxo has preserved the shadow, but in his narrative it
produces the greatest contradiction. Gudmund offers
fruits, drinks, and embraces in order to induce his guests
to remain with him for ever, and he does it in a tempting
manner and, as it seems, with conscious cunning. Never-
theless, he shows unlimited patience when the guests
insult him by accepting nothing of what he offers. When
he comes down to the sea-strand, where Gorm's ships are
anchored, he is greeted by the leader of the discoverers
with joy, because he is "the most pious being and man's
protector in perils." He conducts them in safety to his

334

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

castle. When a handful of them returns after the at-
tempt to plunder the treasury of the lower world, he con-
siders the crime sufficiently punished by the loss of life
they have suffered, and takes them across the river to his
own safe home; and when they, contrary to his wishes,
desire to return to their native land, he loads them with
gifts and sees to it that they get safely on board their
ships. It follows that Saxo's sources have described
Gudmund as a kind and benevolent person. Here, as in
the legend about Helge Thoreson, the shadow has been
thrown by younger hands upon an older background
painted in bright colours.

Hervor's saga says that he was wise, mighty, in a
heathen sense pious ("a great sacrificer"), and so hon-
oured that sacrifices were offered to him, and he was wor-
shipped as a god after death. Herrod's saga says that
he was greatly skilled in magic arts, which is another ex-
pression for heathen wisdom, for fimbul-songs, runes,
and incantations.

The change for the worse which Gudmund' s character
seems in part to have suffered is confirmed by a change
connected with, and running parallel to it, in the concep-
tion of the forces in those things which belonged to the
lower world of the Teutonic heathendom and to Gud-
mund's domain. In Saxo we find an idea related to the
antique Lethe myth, according to which the liquids and
plants which belong to the lower world produce forget-
fulness of the past. Therefore, Thorkil (Thorkillus)
warns his companions not to eat or drink any of that
which Gudmund offers them. In the Gudrun song (ii.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

21, 22), and elsewhere, we meet with the same idea. I
shall return to this subject (see No. 50).

50.

ANALYSIS OE THE SAGAS MENTIONED IN NOS. 44-48. THE
QUESTION IN REGARD TO THE IDENTIFICATION OE
ODAINSAKER.

Is Gudmund an invention of Christian times, although
he is placed in an environment which in general and in
detail reflects the heathen mythology ? Or is there to be
found in the mythology a person who has precisely the
same environment and is endowed with the same at-
tributes and qualities?

The latter form an exceedingly strange ensemble, and
can therefore easily be recognized. Ruler in the lower
world, and at the same time a giant. Pious and still a
giant. King in a domain to which winter cannot pene-
trate. Within that domain an enclosed place, whose bul-
wark neither sickness, nor age, nor death can surmount.
It is left to his power and pleasure to give admittance to
the mysterious meadows, where the mead-cisterns of the
lower world are found, and where the most precious of
all horns, a wonderful sword, and a splendid arm-ring
are kept. Old as the hills, but yet subject to death.
Honoured as if he were not a giant, but a divine being.
These are the features which together characterise Gud-
mund, and should be found in his mythological prototype,
if there is one. With these peculiar characteristics are
united wisdom and wealth.

336

The answer to the question whether a mythical orig-
inal of this picture is to be discovered will be given below.
But before that we must call attention to some points in
the Christian accounts cited in regard to Odainsaker.

Odainsaker is not made identical with the Glittering
Plains, but is a separate place on them, or at all events
within Gudmund's domain. Thus according to Hervor's
saga. The correctness of the statement is confirmed by
comparison with Gorm's and Hadding's sagas. The
former mentions, as will be remembered, a place which
Gudmund does not consider himself authorized to show
his guests, although they are permitted to see other mys-
terious places in the lower world, even the mead-foun-
tains and treasure-chambers. To the unknown place, as
to Balder's subterranean dwelling, leads a golden bridge,
which doubtless is to indicate the splendour of the place.
The subterranean goddess, who is Hadding's guide in
Hades, shows him both the Glittering Fields (loca aprica)
and the plains of the dead heroes, but stops with him near
a wall, which is not opened for them. The domain sur-
rounded by the wall receives nothing which has suffered
death, and its very proximity seems to be enough to keep
death at bay (see No. 47).

All the sagas are silent in regard to who those beings
are for whom this wonderful enclosed place is intended.
Its very name, Acre-of-the-not-dead (Odainsakr), and
The field-of-the-liznng (lord lif&nda manna), however,
makes it clear that it is not intended for the souls of the
dead. This Erik Vidforle's saga is also able to state,
inasmuch as it makes a definite distinction between

337

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Odainsaker and the land of the spirits, between Odainsakr
and Paradise. If human or other beings are found with-
in the bulwark of the place, they must have come there as
living beings in a physical sense; and when once there,
they are protected from perishing, for diseases, age, and
death are excluded.

Erik Vidforle and his companion find on their journey
on Odainsaker only a single dwelling, a splendid one
with two beds. Who the couple are who own this house,
and seem to have placed it at the disposal of the travellers,
is not stated. But in the night there came a beautiful
lad to Erik. The author of the saga has made him an
angel, who is on duty on the borders between Odainsaker
and Paradise.

The purpose of Odainsaker is not mentioned in Erik
Vidforle's saga. There is no intelligible connection be-
tween it and the Christian environment given to it by
the saga. The ecclesiastical belief knows an earthly
Paradise, that which existed in the beginning and was
the home of Adam and Eve, but that it is guarded by the
angel with the flaming sword, or, as Erik's saga expresses
it, it is encircled by a wall of fire. In the lower world
the Christian Church knows a Hades and a hell, but the
path to them is through the gates of death; physically
living persons, persons who have not paid tribute to death,
are not found there. In the Christian group of ideas
there is no place for Odainsaker. An underground place
for physically living people, who are there no longer ex-
posed to aging and death, has nothing to do in the econ-
omy of the Church. Was there occasion for it among-

338

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

the ideas of the heathen eschatology ? The above-quoted
sagas say nothing about the purposes of Odainsaker.
Here is therefore a question of importance to our sub-
ject, and one that demands an answer.

51.

GUDMUND'S IDENTITY WITH MIMER.

I dare say the most characteristic figure of Teutonic
mythology is Mimer, the lord of the fountain which bears
his name. The liquid contained in the fountain is the
object of Odin's deepest desire. He has neither author-
ity nor power over it. Nor does he or anyone else of the
gods seeks to get control of it by force. Instances are
mentioned showing that Odin, to get a drink from it,
must subject himself to great sufferings and sacrifices
(Voluspa, Cod. Reg., 28, 29; Havamal, 138-140;
Gylfag., 15), and it is as a gift or a loan that he after-
wards receives from Mimer the invigorating and soul-
inspiring drink (Havamal, 140, 141). Over the foun-
tain and its territory Mimer, of course, exercises unlim-
ited control, an authority which the gods never appear to
have disputed. He has a sphere of power which the
gods recognize as inviolable. The domain of his rule
belongs to the lower world; it is situated under one of
the roots of the world-tree (Voluspa, 28, 29; Gylfag.,
15), and when Odin, from the world-tree, asks for the
precious mead of the fountain, he peers downward into
the deep, and thence brings up the runes (nysta ec nithr,

339

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

nam ec up runar — Havam.ll, 139). Saxo's account of
the adventure of Hotherus (Hist., pp. 113-115, Miiller's
ed.) shows that there was thought to be a descent to
Mimer's land in the form of a mountain cave (specus),
and that this descent was, like the one to Gudmund's do-
main, to be found in the uttermost North, where terrible
cold reigns.

Though a giant, Mimer is the friend of the order of
the world and of the gods. He, like Urd, guards the
sacred ash, the world-tree (Voluspa, 28), which accord-
ingly also bears his name and is called Mimer's tree
(Mimameidr — Fjolsvinsm, 20; meidr Mima — Fjolsv.,
24). The intercourse between the Asa-father and him
has been of such a nature that the expression "Mimer's
friend" (Mimsvinr — Sonatorrek, 22; Younger Edda, i.
238, 250, 602) could be used by the skalds as an epithet
of Odin. Of this friendship Ynglingasaga (ch. 4) has
preserved a record. It makes Mimer lose his life in his
activity for the good of the gods, and makes Odin em-
balm his head, in order that he may always be able to get
wise counsels from its lips. The song about Sigrdrifa
(str. 14) represents Odin as listening to the words of
truth which come from Mimer's head. Voluspa (str.
45) predicts that Odin, when Ragnarok approaches, shall
converse with Mimer's head; and, according to Gylfag-
inning (56), he, immediately before the conflagration of
the world, rides to Mimer's fountain to get advice from
the deep thinker for himself and his friends. The firm
friendship between Alfather and this strange giant of the
lower world was formed in time's morning while Odin

340

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

was still young and undeveloped (Hav., 141), and con-
tinued until the end of the gods and the world.

Mimer is the collector of treasures. The same treas-
ures as Gorm and his men found in the land which Gud-
mund let them visit are, according to mythology, in the
care of Mimer. The wonderful horn (Voluspa, 28),
the sword of victory, and the ring (Saxo, Hist., 113,
114; cp. Nos. 87, 97, 98, 101, 103).

In all these points the Gudmund of the middle-age
sagas and Mimer of the mythology are identical. There
still remains an important point. In Gudmund's domain
there is a splendid grove, an enclosed place, from which
weaknesses, age, and death are banished — a Paradise
of the peculiar kind, that it is not intended for the souls
of the dead, but for certain lifandi menu, yet inaccessible
to people in general. In the myth concerning Mimer we
also find such a grove.

52.

MIMER'S GROVE. LIE AND LEIETHRASER.

The grove is called after its ruler and guardian, Mi-
mer's or Treasure-Mimer's grove (Mimis holt — Young-
er Edda, Upsala Codex ; Gylfag., 58 ; Hoddmimis holt —
Vafthrudnism, 45; Gylfag., 58).

Gylfaginning describes the destruction of the world
and its regeneration, and then relates how the earth,
rising out of the sea, is furnished with human inhabi-
tants. "During the conflagration (i Surtarloga) two

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

persons are concealed in Treasure-Mimer's grove. Their
names are Lif (Lif) and Leifthraser (Leifthrasir) , and
they feed on the morning dews. From them come so
great an offspring that all the world is peopled."

In support of its statement Gylfaginning quotes Vaf-
thrudnersmal. This poem makes Odin and the giant
Vafthrudner (Vafthrudnir} put questions to each other,
and among others Odin asks this question :

Fiolth ec for,
fiolth ec freistathac,
fiolth ec um reynda regin:
hvat lifir manna,
tha er inn msera lithr
fimbulvetr meth firom?

"Much I have travelled, much I have tried, much I have
tested the powers. What human persons shall still live
when the famous fimbul-winter has been in the world?"
Vafthrudner answers:

Lif oc Leifthrasir,
enn thau leynaz muno
i holti Hoddmimis;
morgindauggvar
thau ser at mat hafa
enn thadan af aldir alaz.

"Lif and Leifthraser (are still living) ; they are con-
cealed in Hodd-Mimer's grove. They have morning
dews for nourishment. Thence (from Hodd-Mimer's
grove and this human pair) are born (new) races."

Gylfaginning says that the two human beings, Lif and
Leifthraser, who become the progenitors of the races that

342

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

are to people the earth after Ragnarok, are concealed
during the conflagration of the world in Hodd-Mimer's
grove. This is, beyond doubt, in accordance with mythic
views. But mythologists, who have not paid sufficient
attention to what Gylfaginning's source (Vafthrudners-
mal) has to say on the subject, have from the above ex-
pression drawn a conclusion which implies a complete
misunderstanding of the traditions in regard to Hodd-
Mimer's grove and the human pair therein concealed.
They have assumed that Lif and Leifthraser are, like all
other people living at that time, inhabitants of the sur-
face of the earth at the time when the conflagration of
the world begins. They have explained Mimer's grove
to mean the world-tree, and argued that when Surt's
flames destroy all other mortals this one human pair have
succeeded in climbing upon some particular branch of
the world-tree, where they were protected from the de-
structive element. There they were supposed to live on
morning dews until the end of Ragnarok, and until they
could come down from their hiding-place in Ygdrasil
upon the earth which has risen from the sea, and there
become the progenitors of a more happy human race.

According to this interpretation, Ygdrasil was a tree
whose trunk and branches could be grasped by human
hands, and one or more mornings, with attendant morn-
ing dews, are assumed to have come and gone, while fire
and flames enveloped all creation, and after the sun had
been swallowed by the wolf and the stars had fallen from
the heavens (Gylfag., 55; Volusp., 54) ! And with this
terrible catastrophe before their eyes, Lif and Leifthraser

343

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

are supposed to sit in perfect unconcern, eating the morn-
ing dews!

For the scientific reputation of mythical inquiry it were
well if that sort of investigations were avoided when
they are not made necessary by the sources themselves.

If sufficient attention had been paid to the above-cited
evidence furnished by Vafthrudnersmal in this question,
the misunderstanding might have been avoided, and the
statement of Gylfaginning would not have been inter-
preted'to mean that Lif and Leifthraser inhabited Mim-
er's grove only during Ragnarok. For Vafthrudners-
mal plainly states that this human pair are in perfect
security in Mimer's grove, while a long and terrible win-
ter, a fimbul-winter, visits the earth and destroys its in-
habitants. Not until after the end of this winter do
giants and gods collect their forces for a decisive conflict
on Vigrid's plains; and when this conflict is ended, then
comes the conflagration of the world, and after it the re-
generation. Anent the length of the fimbul-winter, Gyl-
faginning (ch. 55) claims that it continued for three
years "without any intervening summer."

Consequently Lif and Leifthraser must have had their
secure place of refuge in Mimer's grove during the fimbul-
winter, which precedes Ragnarok. And, accordingly,
the idea that they were there only during Ragnarok, and
all the strange conjectures based thereon, are unfounded.
They continue to remain there while the winter rages,
and during all the episodes which characterise the prog-
ress of the world towards ruin, and, finally, also, as
Gylfaginning reports, during the conflagration and re-
generation of the world.

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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

Thus it is explained why the myth finds it of impor-
tance to inform us how Lif and Leifthraser support them-
selves during their stay in Mimer's grove. It would not
have occurred to the myth to present and answer this
question had not the sojourn of the human pair in the
grove continued for some length of time. Their food
is the morning dew. The morning dew from Ygdrasil
was, according to the mythology, a sweet and wonderful
nourishment, and in the popular traditions of the Teu-
tonic middle age the dew of the morning retained its
reputation for having strange, nourishing qualities. Ac-
cording to the myth, it evaporates from the world-tree,
which stands, ever green and blooming, over Urd's and
Mimer's sacred fountains, and drops thence "in dales"
(Voluspa, 18, 28; Gylfag., 16). And as the world-tree
is sprinkled and gets its life-giving sap from these foun-
tains, then it follows that the liquid of its morning dew is
substantially the same as that of the subterranean foun-
tains, which contain the elixir of life, wisdom, and poesy
(cp. Nos. 72, 82, and elsewhere).

At what time Mimer's grove was opened as an asy-
lum for Lif and Leifthraser, whether this happened dur-
ing or shortly before the fimbul-winter, or perchance long
before it, on this point there is not a word in the passages
quoted from Vafthrudnersmal. But by the following
investigation the problem shall be solved.

The Teutonic mythology has not looked upon the re-
generation of the world as a new creation. The life
which in time's morning developed out of chaos is not de-
stroyed by Surt's flames, but rescues itself, purified, for the

23 345

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

coming age of the world. The world-tree survives the con-
flagration, for it defies both edge and fire (Fjolsvinnsm,
20, 21). The Ida-plains are not annihilated. After
Ragnarok, as in the beginning of time, they are the scene
of the assemblings of the gods (Voluspa, 57; cp. 7).
Vanaheim is not affected by the destruction, for Njord
shall in aldar rauc (Vafthrudnersmal, 39) return thither
"to wise Vans." Odin's dwellings of victory remain,
and are inhabited after regeneration by Balder and Hodr
(Voluspa, 59). The new sun is the daughter of the old
one, and was born before Ragnarok (Vafthr., 47), which
she passes through unscathed. The ocean does not dis-
appear in Ragnarok, for the present earth sinks beneath
its surface (Voluspa, 54), and the new earth after re-
generation rises from its deep (Voluspa, 55). Gods sur-
vive (Voluspa, 53, 56; Vafthr. 51; Gylfag., 58). Hu-
man beings survive, for Lif and Leifthraser are destined
to become the connecting link between the present human
race and the better race which is to spring therefrom.
Animals and plants survive — though the animals and
plants on the surface of the earth perish; but the earth
risen from the sea was decorated with green, and there
is not the slightest reference to a new act of creation to
produce the green vegetation. Its cascades contain liv-
ing beings, and over them flies the eagle in search of his
prey (Voluspa, 56; see further, No. 55). A work of
art from antiquity is also preserved in the new world.
The game of dice, with which the gods played in their
youth while they were yet free from care, is found again
among the flowers on the new earth (Voluspa, 8, 58 ; see
further, No. 55). 6

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

If the regeneration had been conceived as a new crea-
tion, a wholly new beginning of life, then the human race
of the new era would also have started from a new crea-
tion of a human pair. The myth about L,if and Leif-
thraser would then have been unnecessary and superflu-
ous. But the fundamental idea is that the life of the new
era is to be a continuation of the present life purified and
developed to perfection, and from the standpoint of this
fundamental idea Lif and Leifthraser are necessary.

The idea of improvement and perfection are most
clearly held forth in regard to both the physical and spir-
itual condition of the future world. All that is weak
and evil shall be redeemed (bauls muti alls batna —
Voluspa, 59). In that perfection of nature the fields
unsown by men shall yield their harvests. To secure the
restored world against relapse into the faults of the for-
mer, the myth applies radical measures — so radical, that
the Asa majesty himself, Val father, must retire from the
scene, in order that his son, the perfectly blameless Bal-
der, may be the centre in the assembly of the chosen gods.
But the mythology would fail in its purpose if it did not
apply equally radical measures in the choice and care of
the human beings who are to perpetuate our race after
Ragnarok; for if the progenitors have within them the
seed of corruption, it will be developed in their descend-
ants.

Has the mythology forgotten to meet this logical
claim? The demand is no greater than that which is
made in reference to every product of the fancy of what-
ever age. I do not mean to say that a logical claim

347

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

made on the mythology, or that a conclusion which may
logically be drawn from the premises of the mythology,
is to be considered as evidence that the claim has actually
been met by the mythology, and that the mythology itself
has been developed into its logical conclusion. I simply
want to point out what the claim is, and in the next place
I desire to investigate whether there is evidence that the
claim has been honoured.

Prom the standpoint that there must be a logical har-
mony in the mythological system, it is necessary :

1. That Lif and Leifthraser when they enter their
asylum, Mimer's grove, are physically and spiritually
uncorrupted persons.

2. That during their stay in Mimer's grove they are
protected against:

(a) Spiritual degradation.

(b) Physical degradation.

So far as the last point (2r) is concerned, we know
already from Vafthrudnersmal that the place of refuge
they received in the vicinity of those fountains, which,
with never-failing veins, nourish the life of the world-
tree, is approached neither by the frost of the fimbul-
winter nor by the flames of Ragnarok. This claim is,
therefore, met completely.

In regard to the second point (2&), the above-cited
mythic traditions have preserved from the days of heath-
endom the memory of a grove in the subterranean do-
main of Gudmund-Mimer, set aside for living men, not

348

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

for the dead, and protected against sickness, aging, and
death. Thus this claim is met also.

As to the third point (2a), all we know at present is
that there, in the lower world, is found an enclosed place,
the very one which death cannot enter, and from which
even those mortals are banished by divine command who
are admitted to the holy fountains and treasure chambers
of the lower world, and who have been permitted to see
the regions of bliss and places of punishment there. It
would therefore appear that all contact between those
who dwell there and those who take part in the events
of our world is cut off. The realms of Mimer and the
lower world have, according to the sagas — and, as we
shall see later, according to the myths themselves — now
and then been opened to bold adventurers, who have seen
their wonders, looked at their remarkable fountains, their
plains for the amusement of the shades of heroes^ and
their places of punishment of the wicked. But there is
one place which has been inaccessible to them, a field pro-
claimed inviolable by divine command (Gorm's saga), a
place surrounded by a wall, which can be entered only by
such beings as can pass through the smallest crevices
(Hadding's saga).* But that this difficulty of entrance
also was meant to exclude the moral evil, by which the
mankind of our age is stained, is not expressly stated.

Thus we have yet to look and see whether the original
documents from the heathen times contain any state-
ments which can shed light on this subject. In regard

* Prodcuntibus murus aditu transcensuque difflcilis obsistebat, quern
femina (the subterranean goddess who is Hadding's guide) nequicquam
transilire conata cum ne corrugati quidem exilitate proflceret (Saxo, Hist.
Dan., i. 51).

349

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

to the point (1), the question it contains as to whether
the mythology conceived Lif and Leifthraser as physic-
ally and morally undefiled at the time when they entered
Mimer's grove, can only be solved if we, in the old
records, can find evidence that a wise, foreseeing power
opened Mimer's grove as asylum for them, at a time
when mankind as a whole had not yet become the prey
of physical and moral misery. But in that very primeval
age in which the most of the events of mythology are
supposed to have happened, creation had already be-
come the victim of corruption. There was a time when
the life of the gods was happiness and the joy of youth-
ful activity; the condition of the world did not cause
them anxiety, and, free from care, they amused them-
selves with the wonderful dice (Voluspa, 7, 8). But
the golden age ended in physical and moral catastro-
phies. The air was mixed with treacherous evil ; Freyja,
the goddess of fertility and modesty, was treacherously
delivered into the hands of the frost giants ; on the earth
the sorceress Heid (Held} strutted about teaching the
secrets of black magic, which was hostile to the gods and
hurtful to man. The first great war broke out in the
world (Voluspa, 21, 22, 26). The effects of this are felt
down through the historical ages even to Ragnarok. The
corruption of nature culminates in the fimbul-winter of
the last days; the corruption of mankind has its climax
in "the axe- and knife-ages." The separation of Lif and
Leifthraser from their race and confinement in Mimer's
grove must have occurred before the above catastrophies
in time's beginning, if there is to be a guarantee that the

350

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

human race of the new world is not to inherit and de-
velop the defects and weaknesses of the present historical
generations.

(Continuation of Part IV in Volume II.)

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