Delling, the elf of the rosy dawn; and he is the father of Dag's mother,
of _Unnr_, and of the goddess Jord, who becomes Odin's wife and Thor's
mother. Bonds of kinship thus connect him with the Asas and with gods of
other ranks.
(_d_) He is near akin to the dis of fate and death, Urd and her sisters.
The word _nipt_, with which Urd's relation to him is indicated, may mean
sister, daughter, and sister's daughter, and consequently does not state
which particular one of these it is. It seems upon the whole to have
been applied well-nigh exclusively in regard to mythic persons, and
particularly in regard to Urd and her sisters (cp. above: _Njörva nipt_,
_nipt Nara_, _nipt Nera_), so that it almost acquired the meaning of
dis or norn. This is evident from Skaldskaparmal, ch. 75: _Nornir heita
thær er naud skapa; Nipt ok Dis nú eru taldar_, and from the expression
_Heil Nótt ok Nipt_ in the above-cited strophe from Sigrdrifumal. There
is every reason for assuming that the _Nipt_, which is here used as a
proper noun, in this sense means the dis of fate and as an appellation
of kinship, a kinswoman of Nat. The common interpretation of _heil Nótt
ok Nipt_ is "hail Nat and her daughter," and by her daughter is then
meant the goddess Jord; but this interpretation is, as Bugge has shown,
less probable, for the goddess Jord immediately below gets her special
greeting in the words: _heil sia in fiolnyta Fold!_ ("hail the bounteous
earth!")
(_e_) As the father of Nat, living in Mimer's realm, and kinsman of
Urd, who with Mimer divides the dominion over the lower world, Narve is
himself a being of the lower world, and the oldest subterranean being;
the first one who inhabited Jotunheim.
(_f_) He presided over the subterranean fountain of wisdom and
inspiration, that is to say, Mimer's fountain.
(_g_) He was Odin's friend and the binder of Odin's foes.
(_h_) He died and left his fountain as a heritage to his descendants.
[Illustration: GEFION AND KING GYLPHI.
(_From an etching by Lorenz Frölich._)
It is told that once when Gylphi, King of Sweden and Denmark, was sorely
distressed, Gefion, "the giver," appeared before him in the form of a
charming maiden and so delighted the king with a song, accompanied with
dulcet notes of her harp, that Gylphi offered to bestow upon her any
guerdon she might ask. To this proffer the divine Gefion replied, that if
she had found so much favor in the eyes of her sovereign as to merit so
great a reward, she asked that as much land might be given her as could
be ploughed around by her four bulls in a day and night. Surprised at the
modesty of her request Gylphi immediately granted it. Thereupon Gefion
brought four wonderful bulls which she harnessed to a plow that had a
hundred shares and ploughed the sea day and night, raising earth out of
the water until the island of Zealand was formed, upon which she built
a castle and established a kingdom. By her magic spells she transformed
the four bulls into as many youths, who were indeed her sons by a giant.
Soon afterwards she married Skjöld and became mother of a long line of
kings.]
As our investigation progresses it will be found that all these facts
concerning Narve apply to Mimer, that "he who thinks" (Mimer) and "he who
binds" (Narve) are the same person. Already the circumstances that Narve
was an ancient being of giant descent, that he dwelt in the lower world
and was the possessor of the fountain of wisdom there, that he was Odin's
friend, and that he died and left his fountain as an inheritance (cp.
_Mims synir_), point definitely to Narve's and Mimer's identity. Thus the
Teutonic theogony has made Thought the older kinsman of Fate, who through
Nat bears Dag to the world. The people of antiquity made their first
steps toward a philosophical view of the world in their theogony.
The Old English language has preserved and transferred to the Christian
Paradise a name which originally belonged to the subterranean region of
bliss of heathendom--_Neorxenavang_. _Vang_ means a meadow, plain, field.
The mysterious _Neorxena_ looks like a genitive plural. Grein, in his
Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and before him Weinhold, refers _neorxena_ to
_Narve_, _Nare_, and this without a suspicion that _Narve_ was an epithet
of Mimer and referred to the king of the heathen regions of bliss. I
consider this an evidence that Grein's assumption is as correct as it
is necessary, if upon the whole we are to look for an etymological
explanation of the word. The plural genitive, then, means those who
inhabit Narve's regions of bliss, and receive their appellation from this
circumstance. The opposite Old Norse appellation is _njarir_, a word
which I shall discuss below.
To judge from certain passages in Christian writings of the thirteenth
century, Mimer was not alone about the name Narve, Nare. One or two of
Loke's sons are supposed to have had the same name. The statements in
this regard demand investigation, and, as I think, this will furnish
another instructive contribution to the chapter on the confusion of the
mythic traditions, and on the part that the Younger Edda plays in this
respect. The passages are:
(_a_) _The prosaic afterword to Lokasenna_: "He (Loke) was bound with the
entrails of his son _Nari_, but his son _Narfi_ was turned into a wolf."
(_b_) _Gylfaginning_, ch. 33. (1) _Most of the codices_: "His (Loke's)
wife is hight Sygin; their son is _Nari_ or _Narvi_."
(2) _Codex Hypnonesiensis_: "His (Loke's) wife is hight Sygin; his sons
are hight _Nari_ or _Narvi_ and _Vali_."
(_c_) _Gylfaginning_, ch. 50. (1) _Most of the codices:_ "Then were taken
Loke's sons _Vali_ and _Nari_ or _Narfi_. The Asas changed _Vali_ into a
wolf, and the latter tore into pieces his brother _Narfi_. Then the Asas
took his entrails and therewith bound Loke."
(2) _Codex Upsalensis_: "Then were taken Loke's sons _Vali_ and _Nari_.
The Asas changed _Vali_ into a wolf, and the latter tore into pieces his
brother _Nari_."
(_d_) _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 16. (1) "Loke is the father of the wolf
Fenrer, the Midgard-serpent, and Hel, 'and also of _Nari_ and _Ali_.'"
(2) _Codex Wormianus_ and _Codex Hypnonesiensis_, 3: "Loke is father of
the Fenris-wolf, of the Midgard-serpent, and of Hel, 'and also of _Nari_
and _Vali_.'"
The mythology has stated that Loke was bound with chains which were
originally entrails, and that he who contributed the materials of these
chains was his own son, who was torn into pieces by his brother in wolf
guise. It is possible that there is something symbolic in this myth--that
it originated in the thought that the forces created by evil contend with
each other and destroy their own parent. There is at least no reason for
doubting that this account is a genuine myth, that is to say, that it
comes from a heathen source and from some heathen poem.
But, in regard to the names of Loke's two sons here in question, we have
a perfect right to doubt.
We discover at once the contradictions betrayed by the records in regard
to them. The discrepancy of the statements can best be shown by the
following comparisons. Besides Fenrer, the Midgard-serpent, and Hel, Loke
has, according to
Gylfaginning, 33: the son _Nari_, also called No other son
_Narfi_ is named;
The Prose added to }
Lokasenna: } the son _Nari_, and the son _Narfi_;
Codex Hypnon. } the son _Nari_, also called
(Gylfag., 33): } _Narvi_, and the son _Vali_;
Gylfaginning, ch. 50: the son _Nari_, also called and the son _Vali_;
_Narfi_,
Skaldskaparmal, }
ch. 16: } the son _Nari_, and the son _Ali_;
The Prose added to }
Lokasenna: } _Nari_, is torn into pieces by _Narfi_;
Gylfaginning: _Nari-Narfi_ is torn into pieces by _Vali_.
The discrepancy shows that the author of these statements did not have
any mythic song or mythic tradition as the source of all these names of
Loke's sons.
The matter becomes even more suspicious when we find--
That the variations Nare and Narve, both of which belong to one of the
foremost and noblest of mythic beings, namely, to Mimer, are here applied
in such a manner that they either are given to two sons of Loke or are
attributed to one and the same Loke-son, while in the latter case it
happens--
That the names Vale and Ale, which both belong to the same Asa-god and
son of Odin who avenged the death of his brother Balder, are _both_
attributed to the other son of Loke. Compare Gylfaginning, ch. 30: _Vali
eda Ali heitir einn (Assin) sonr Odins ok Rindar._
How shall we explain this? Such an application of these names must
necessarily produce the suspicion of some serious mistake; but we cannot
assume that it was made wilfully. The cause must be found somewhere.
It has already been demonstrated that, in the mythology, Urd, the dis of
fate, was also the dis of death and the ruler of the lower world, and
that the functions belonging to her in this capacity were, in Christian
times, transferred to Loke's daughter, who, together with her functions,
usurped her name Hel. Loke's daughter and Hel became to the Christian
mythographers identical.
An inevitable result was that such expressions as _nipt Nara_, _jódis
Narfa_, _nipt Njörva_, had to change meaning. The _nipt Njörva_, whom
the aged Egil saw standing near the grave-mound on Digraness, and whose
arrival he awaited "with gladness and good-will," was no longer the
death-dis Urd, but became to the Christian interpreters the abominable
daughter of Loke who came to fetch the old heathen. The _nipt Nara_,
whose horse trampled on the battle-field where Erik Blood-axe defeated
the Scots, was no longer Urd's sister, the valkyrie Skuld, but became
Loke's daughter, although, even according to the Christian mythographers,
the latter had nothing to do on a battle-field. The _jódis Narfa_, who
chose King Dygve, was confounded with _Loka mær_, who had him _leikinn_
(see No. 67), but who, according to the heathen conception, was a
maid-servant of fate, without the right of choosing. To the heathens
_nipt Nara_, _nipt Njörva_, _jódis Narfa_, meant "Nare-Mimer's kinswoman
Urd." To the mythographers of the thirteenth century it must, for the
reason stated, have meant the Loke-daughter as sister of a certain Nare
or Narve. It follows that this Nare or Narve ought to be a son of Loke,
since his sister was Loke's daughter. It was known that Loke besides
Fenrer and the Midgard-serpent, had two other sons, of which the one in
the guise of a wolf tore the other into pieces. In Nare, Narve, the name
of one or the names of both these Loke-sons were thought to have been
found.
The latter assumption was made by the author of the prose in Lokasenna.
He conceived Nare to be the one brother and Narve the other. The author
of Gylfaginning, on the other hand, rightly regarded Nare and Narve as
simply variations of the same name, and accordingly let them designate
the same son of Loke. When he wrote chapter 33, he did not know what name
to give to the other, and consequently omitted him entirely. But when he
got to the 50th chapter, a light had risen for him in regard to the name
of the other. And the light doubtless came from the following strophe in
Völuspa:
tha kna vala
vigbond snua,
helldi voru hardgior
hoft or thormum.
This half strophe says that those were strong chains (for Loke) that
were made of entrails, and these fetters were "twisted" from "Vale's
_vigbönd_." _Vig_ as a legal term means a murder, slaughter. _Vala vig_
was interpreted as a murder committed by Vale; and _Vala vigbönd_ as the
bonds or fetters obtained by the slaughter committed by Vale. It was
known that Loke was chained with the entrails of his son, and here it
was thought to appear that this son was slain by a certain Vale. And as
he was slain by a brother according to the myth, then Vale must be the
brother of the slain son of Loke. Accordingly chapter 50 of Gylfaginning
could tell us what chapter 33 did not yet know, namely, that the two sons
of Loke were named Vale and Nare or Narve, and that Vale changed to a
wolf, tore the brother "Nare or Narve" into pieces.
The next step was taken by Skaldskaparmal, or more probably by one of
the transcribers of Skaldskaparmal. As Vale and Ale in the mythology
designated the same person (viz., Balder's avenger, the son of Odin),
the son of Loke, changed into a wolf, "Vale" received as a gift the
name "Ale." It is by no means impossible that the transcriber regarded
Balder's avenger, Vale, and the son of Loke as identical. The oldest
manuscript we have of Skaldskaparmal is the Upsala Codex, which is
no older than the beginning of the fourteenth century. The mythic
traditions were then in the continuation of that rapid decay which had
begun in the eleventh century, and not long thereafter the Icelandic saga
writings saw Valhal peopled by giants and all sorts of monsters, which
were called einherjes, and Thor himself transferred to the places of
torture where he drank venom from "the auroch's horn," presented to him
by the daughter of Loke.
In the interpretation of the above-cited half strophe of Völuspa, we
must therefore leave out the supposed son of Loke, Vale. The Teutonic
mythology, like the other Aryan mythologies, applied many names and
epithets to the same person, but it seldom gave two or more persons
one and the same name, unless the latter was a patronymic or, in other
respects, of a general character. There was not more than one Odin,
one Thor, one Njord, one Heimdal, one Loke, and there is no reason for
assuming that there was more than one Vale, namely, the divine son of
this name. Of Balder's brother Vale we know that he was born to avenge
the slaying of Balder. His impatience to do that which he was called to
perform is expressed in the mythology by the statement, that he liberated
himself from the womb of his mother before the usual time (_Baldrs brodir
var af borinn snemma_--Völuspa), and only one night old he went to slay
_Hödr_. The bonds which confine the impatient one in his mother's womb
were his _vigbönd_, the bonds which hindered him from combat, and these
bonds were in the most literal sense of the word _ór thörmum_. As Loke's
bonds are made of the same material and destined to hinder him from
combat with the gods until Ragnarok, and as his prison is in the womb
of the earth, as Vale's was in that of the earth-goddess Rind's, then
_Vala vigbönd_ as a designation of Loke's chains is both logically and
poetically a satisfactory paraphrase, and the more in order as it occurs
in connection with the description of the impending Ragnarok, when Loke
by an earthquake is to sever his fetters and hasten to the conflict.
86.
THE TWO GIANT CLANS DESCENDED FROM YMER.
In Havamál (140, ff.), Odin says that he in his youth obtained nine
fimbul-songs and a drink of the precious mead dipped out of Odrerer from
_Beyzla's_ father, _Bölthorn's_ famous son:
Fimbulliód nio
nam ec af enom iregia syni
Baulthorns Beyzlu faudur
oc ce dryc of gat
ens dyra miadar
ausinn Odreri.
The mythologists have assumed, for reasons that cannot be doubted, that
Bolthorn's famous son, Beistla's brother, is identical with Mimer. No one
else than he presided at that time over the drink dipped out of Odrerer,
the fountain which conceals "wisdom and man's sense," and Sigrdrifumal
(13, 14) corroborates that it was from Mimer, and through a drink
from "Hodrofner's horn," that Odin obtained wonderful runes and "true
sayings."
Accordingly Mimer had a sister by name _Beyzla_ (variations: _Bestla_,
_Besla_, _Bezla_). A strophe by Einar Skalaglam (Skaldskaparmal, ch. 2;
cp. Gylfag., ch. 6) informs us that Beistla is Odin's mother. Mimer's
disciple, the clan-chieftain of the gods, is accordingly his sister's
son. Herein we have one more reason for the faithful friendship which
Mimer always showed to Odin.
The Mimer epithet _Narfi_, Narve, means, as shown above, "the one who
binds." His daughter Nat is called _draumnjörun_, the dream-binder
(Alvism., 31). His kinswomen, the norns, spin and bind the threads and
bonds, which, extended throughout the world, weave together the web of
events. Such threads and bonds are called _örlogthættir_ (Helge Hund., i.
3), and _Urdar lokur_ (Grogaldr., 7). As the nearest kinswomen of Beistla
all have epithets or tasks which refer to the idea of _binding_, and
when we add to this that Beistla's sons and descendants as gods have the
epithet _höpt_ and _bönd_, her own name might most properly be referred
to the old word _beizl_, _beisl_ (cp. _betsel_, bridle), which has a
similar meaning.
As Mimer and Beistla are of giant descent, and in the theogony belong to
the same stage of development as Bur (_Burr_), Odin's father, then, as
the mythologists also have assumed, _Bolthorn_ can be none else than Ymer.
Mimer, Beistla, the norns, and Nat thus form a group of kindred beings,
which belong to the oldest giant race, but still they are most definitely
separated from the other descendants of Ymer, as a higher race of giants
from a lower, a noble giant race friendly to the gods and fostering
the gods, from that race of deformed beings which bear children in the
strangest manner, which are hostile to the gods and to the world, and
which are represented by the rimthurses Thrudgelmer and Bergelmer and
their offspring.
It now lies near at hand to inquire whether the mythology which
attributed the same father to Mimer and Thrudgelmer was unable to
conceive in this connection the idea of a nobler origin for the former
than the latter. The remedy nearest at hand would have been to have given
them mothers of different characters. But the mythology did not resort to
this expedient. It is expressly stated that Ymer bore children without
the pleasure of woman (_gygiar gaman_--Vafthrudnersmal, 32; cp. No. 60).
Neither Mimer nor Thrudgelmer had a mother. Under such circumstances
there is another expedient to which the sister of the Teutonic mythology,
the Rigveda mythology, has resorted, and which is explained in the 90th
hymn of book x. of Rigveda. The hymn informs us in regard to a primeval
giant Parusha, and this myth is so similar to the Teutonic in regard to
Ymer that it must here be considered.
The primeval being Parusha was a giant monster as large as the whole
world, and even larger (lines 1-5). The gods resolved to sacrifice
him, that is to say, to slay him for sacred purposes (l. 6), and from
his limbs was created the present world. From his navel was made the
atmosphere, from his head the canopy of heaven, from his two feet the
earth, from his heart the moon, from his eye the sun, from his breath the
wind, &c. _His mouth became the brahma_ (the priest), _his arms became
the rajanya_ (the warrior), _his thighs became the vaisya_ (the third
free caste), _and from his feet arose the sudra_ (the thrall, line 12).
The two fundamental ideas of the myth concerning Parusha are:
(1) There was a primeval being who was not divine. The gods slew him and
created the material world out of his limbs.
(2) This primeval being gave rise to other beings of different ranks, and
their rank corresponded with the position of the giant's limbs from which
they were created.
Both these fundamental ideas reappear in the Teutonic myth concerning
Ymer. In regard to the former idea we need only to quote what
Vafthrudnersmal says in strophe 21:
Or Ymis holdi Of Ymer's flesh
var iord um scaupud, the world was shapen,
en or beinom bjorg, from his bones the rocks,
himinn or hausi the heavens from the head
ins hrimkalda iotuns, of the ice-cold giant,
enn or sveita sior. from his blood the sea.
In regard to the second fundamental idea, it is evident from the Rigveda
account that it is not there found in its oldest form, but that, after
the rise of four castes among the Rigveda Aryans, it was changed, in
order to furnish an explanation of the origin of these castes and make
them at least as old as the present material world. Far more original,
and perfectly free from the influence of social ideas, it appears in the
Teutonic mythology, where the 33rd strophe of Vafthrudnersmal testifies
concerning its character:
Undir hendi vaxa A son and a daughter
quatho hrimthursi are said to have been born together
mey oc maug saman; under the rimthurse's arm;
fótr vid fóti gat foot begat with foot
ins froda iotuns the strange-headed son
serhaufdathan son. of the wise giant.
In perfect harmony with this Gylfaginning narrates: "Under Ymer's left
arm grew forth a man and a woman, and his one foot begat with the other a
son. Thence come (different) races."
The different races have this in common, that they are giant races,
since they spring from Ymer; but these giant races must at the same
time have been widely different intellectually and physically, since
the mythology gives them different origins from different limbs of the
progenitor. And here, as in Rigveda, it is clear that the lowest race
was conceived as proceeding from the feet of the primeval giant. This is
stated with sufficient distinctness in Vafthrudnersmal, where we read
that a "strangely-headed" monster (Thrudgelmer--see No. 60) was born by
them, while "man and maid" were born under the arm of the giant. "The
man" and "the maid" must therefore represent a noble race sprung from
Ymer, and they can only be Mimer and his sister, Odin's mother. Mimer
and his clan constitute a group of ancient powers, who watch over the
fountains of the life of the world and care for the perpetuation of the
world-tree. From them proceeded the oldest, fairest, and most enduring
parts of the creation. For the lower world was put in order and had its
sacred fountains and guardians before Bur's sons created Midgard and
Asgard. Among them the world-tree grew up from its roots, whose source
no one knows (Havamál, 138). Among them those forces are active which
make the starry firmament revolve on its axis, and from them come the
seasons and the divisions of time, for Nat and _nidjar_, Mane and Sol,
belong to Mimer's clan, and were in the morning of creation named by the
oldest "high holy gods," and endowed with the vocation _árom at telja_
(Völuspa). From Mimer comes the first culture, for in his fountain
inspiration, spiritual power, man's wit and wisdom, have their source,
and around him as chief stand gathered the artists of antiquity by whose
hands all things can be smithied into living and wonderful things. Such
a giant clan demands another origin than that of the frost-giants and
their offspring. As we learn from Vafthrudnersmal that two giant races
proceeded from Ymer, the one from a part of his body which in a symbolic
sense is more noble than that from which the other race sprang, and
that the race born of his feet was the ignoble one hostile to the gods,
then the conclusion follows of necessity that "the man and maid" who
were born as twins under Ymer's arm became the founders of that noble
group of giants who are friendly to the gods, and which confront us in
the mythology of our fathers. It has already been shown above (see No.
54) that _Jima_ (Yama) in the Asiatic-Aryan mythology corresponds to
Mimer in the Teutonic. Jima is an epithet which means twin. The one with
whom Jima was born together was a maid, Yami. The words in the quoted
Vafthrudnersmal strophe, _undir hendi hrimthursi vaxa mey ok maug saman_,
are evidence that the Germans also considered Mimer and his sister as
twins.
87.
THE IDENTITY OF MIMER AND NIDHAD OF THE VOLUND SAGA.