come down to our time is one of the many examples illustrating how,
under the influences of a change of faith, a myth disrobes itself of its
purely mythical character and becomes a heroic saga. The nature of the
mythic traditions and songs is not at once obliterated in the time of
transition; there remain marks of their original nature in some or other
of the details as proof of what they have been. Thus that fragment of
a Volund saga, turned into an epic, which the Old Norse literature has
preserved for us in Volundarkvida, shows us that the artist who is the
hero of the song was originally conceived not as a son of man, but as
a member of the mythic race of elves which in Völuspa is mentioned in
connection with the Asas (_hvat er med asom, hvat er med alfom?_--str.
49). Volund is an elf-prince (_alfa visi_, _alfa ljothi_--Volund., str.
10, 13), and, as shall be shown below, when we come to consider the
Volund myth exhaustively, he and his brothers and their mistresses have
played parts of the very greatest importance in the epic of Teutonic
mythology. Under such circumstances it follows that the other persons
appearing in Volundarkvida also were originally mythical characters.
One of these is called _Nidadr_ (_Nidudr_), king of Njares, and I am now
to investigate who this _Nidadr_ was in the mythology.
When Volund for the first time appears by this name in the Elder Edda,
he is sojourning in a distant country, to which it is impossible to come
without traversing the Myrkwood forest famous in the mythology (see No.
78). It is a snow-clad country, the home of bears and wolves. Volund gets
his subsistence by hunting on skees. The Old English poem, "Deor the
Scald's Complaint," confirms that this region was regarded as very cold
(cp. _vintercealde vræce_). In Volundarkvida it is called Wolfdales.
Volund stays here many years in company with his two brothers and with
three swan-maids, their mistresses or wives, but finally alone. Volund
passes the time in smithying, until he is suddenly attacked by _Nidadr_
(_Nidudr_), "the Njara-king" (Volundarkv., 6), who puts him in chains and
robs him of two extraordinary treasures--a sword and an arm-ring. Seven
hundred arm-rings hung in a string in Volund's hall; but this one alone
seemed to be worth more than all the rest, and it alone was desired by
_Nidadr_ (str. 7, 8, 17).
Before Volund went to the Wolfdales, he had lived with his people a happy
life in a land abounding in gold (str. 14). Not voluntarily, but from
dire necessity he had exchanged his home for the distant wilderness of
the Wolfdales. "Deor the Scald's Complaint" says he was an exile (_Veland
him be vurman vreces cannade_). A German saga of the middle ages, "Anhang
des Heldenbuchs," confirms this statement. Wieland (Volund), it is there
said, "was a duke who was banished by two giants, who took his land from
him," whereupon "he was stricken with poverty," and "became a smith." The
Volundarkvida does not have much to say about the reason for his sojourn
in the Wolfdales, but strophe 28 informs us that, previous to his arrival
there, he had suffered an injustice, of which he speaks as the worst and
the most revenge-demanding which he, the unhappy and revengeful man, ever
experienced. But he has had no opportunity of demanding satisfaction,
when he finally succeeds in getting free from _Nidadr's_ chains. Who
those mythic persons are that have so cruelly insulted him and filled
his heart with unquenchable thirst for revenge is not mentioned; but in
the very nature of the case those persons from whose persecutions he has
fled must have been mightier than he, and as he himself is a chief in the
godlike clan of elves, his foes are naturally to be looked for among the
more powerful races of gods.
And as Volundarkvida pictures him as boundlessly and recklessly
revengeful, and makes him resort to his extraordinary skill as a smith--a
skill famous among all Teutonic tribes--in the satisfaction which he
demands of _Nidadr_, there is no room for doubt that the many years he
spent in Wolfdales, he brooded on plans of revenge against those who
had most deeply insulted him, and that he made use of his art to secure
instruments for the carrying out of these plans. Of the glittering sword
of which _Nidadr_ robbed him, Volund says (str. 18) that he had applied
his greatest skill in making it hard and keen. The sword must, therefore,
have been one of the most excellent ones mentioned in the songs of
Teutonic heathendom. Far down in the middle ages, the songs and sagas
were fond of attributing the best and most famous swords wielded by their
heroes to the skill of Volund.
In the myths turned by Saxo into history, there has been mentioned a
sword of a most remarkable kind, of untold value (_ingens præmium_), and
attended by success in battle (_belli fortuna comitaretur_). A hero whose
name Saxo Latinised into Hotherus (see _Hist. Dan._, p. 110) got into
enmity with the Asa-gods, and the only means with which he can hope to
cope with them is the possession of this sword. He also knows where to
secure it, and with its aid he succeeds in putting Thor himself and other
gods to flight.
In order to get possession of this sword, Hotherus had to make a journey
which reminds us of the adventurous expeditions already described to
Gudmund-Mimer's domain, but with this difference, that he does not need
to go by sea along the coast of Norway in order to get there, which
circumstance is sufficiently explained by the fact that, according
to Saxo, Hotherus has his home in Sweden. The regions which Hotherus
has to traverse are pathless, full of obstacles, and for the greater
part continually in the cold embrace of the severest frost. They are
traversed by mountain-ridges on which the cold is terrible, and therefore
they must be crossed as rapidly as possible with the aid of "yoke-stags."
The sword is kept concealed in a _specus_, a subterranean cave, and
"mortals" can scarcely cross its threshold (_haud facile mortalibus
patere posse_). The being which is the ward of the sword in this cave is
by Saxo called Mimingus.
The question now is, whether the sword smithied by Volund and the one
fetched by Hotherus are identical or not. The former is smithied in a
winter-cold country beyond Myrkwood, where the mythic _Nidadr_ suddenly
appears, takes possession of it, and the purpose for which it was made,
judging from all circumstances, was that Volund with its aid was to
conquer the hated powers which, stronger than he, the chief of elves, had
compelled him to take refuge to the Wolfdales. If these powers were Asas
or Vans, then it follows that Volund must have thought himself able to
give to his sword qualities that could render it dangerous to the world
of gods, although the latter had Thor's hammer and other subterranean
weapons at their disposal. The sword captured by Hotherus is said to
possess those very qualities which we might look for in the Volund
weapon, and the regions he has to traverse in order to get possession of
it refer, by their cold and remoteness, to a land similar to that where
_Nidadr_ surprises Volund, and takes from him the dangerous sword.
As already stated, Nidad at the same time captured an arm-ring of an
extraordinary kind. If the saga about Volund and his sword was connected
with the saga-fragment turned into history by Saxo concerning Hotherus
and the sword, whose owner he becomes, then we might reasonably expect
that the precious arm-ring, too, should appear in the latter saga. And
we do find it there. Mimingus, who guards the sword of victory, also
guards a wonderful arm-ring, and through Saxo we learn what quality
makes this particular arm-ring so precious, that Nidad does not seem to
care about the other seven hundred which he finds in Volund's workshop.
Saxo says: _Eidem (Mimingo) quoque armillam esse mira quadam arcanaque
virtute possessoris opes augere solitam_. "In the arm-ring there dwells
a wonderful and mysterious power, which increases the wealth of its
possessor." In other words, it is a smith's work, the rival of the ring
Draupner, from which eight similar rings drop every ninth night. This
explains why Volund's smithy contains so many rings, that Nidad expresses
his suspicious wonderment (str. 13).
There are therefore strong reasons for assuming that the sword and the
ring, which Hotherus takes from Mimingus, are the same sword and ring
as Nidad before took from Volund, and that the saga, having deprived
Volund of the opportunity of testing the quality of the weapon himself
in conflict with the gods, wanted to indicate what it really amounted
to in a contest with Thor and his hammer by letting the sword came into
the hands of Hotherus, another foe of the Asas. As we now find such
articles as those captured by Nidad reappearing in the hands of a certain
Mimingus, the question arises whether Mimingus is Nidad himself or some
one of Nidad's subjects; for that they either are identical, or are in
some way connected with each other, seems to follow from the fact that
the one is said to possess what the other is said to have captured.
Mimingus is a Latinising of _Mimingr_, _Mimungr_, son or descendant of
Mimer.
_Nidadr_, _Nidudr_ (both variations are found in Volundarkvida), has,
on the other hand, his counterpart in the Anglo-Saxon Nidhâd. The king
who in "Deor the Scald's Complaint" fetters Volund bears this name, and
his daughter is called Beadohild, in Volundarkvida Bodvild. Previous
investigators have already remarked that Beadohild is a more original
form than Bodvild, and Nidhad than _Nidudr_, _Nidadr_. The name Nidhad is
composed of _nid_ (neuter gender), the lower world, Hades, and _had_, a
being, person, _forma_, _species_. Nidhad literally means the lower world
being, the Hades being. Herewith we also have his mythical character
determined. A mythical king, who is characterised as the _being of the
lower world_, must be a subterranean king. The mythic records extant
speak of the subterranean king Mimer (the middle-age saga's Gudmund, king
of the Glittering Fields; see Nos. 45, 46), who rules over the realm
of the well of wisdom and has the dis of fate as his kinswoman, the
princess of the realm of Urd's fountain and of the whole realm of death.
While we thus find, on the one hand, that it is a subterranean king
who captures Volund's sword and arm-ring, we find, on the other hand,
that when Hotherus is about to secure the irresistible sword and the
wealth-producing ring, he has to betake himself to the same winter-cold
country, where all the traditions here discussed (see Nos. 45-49) locate
the descent to Mimer's realm, and that he, through an entrance "scarcely
approachable for mortals," must proceed into the bosom of the earth after
he has subdued a Mimingus, a son of Mimer. Mimer being the one who took
possession of the treasure, it is perfectly natural that his son should
be its keeper.
This also explains why _Nidadr_ in Volundarkvida is called the king of
the Njares. A people called Njares existed in the mythology, but not in
reality. The only explanation of the word is to be found in the Mimer
epithet, which we discovered in the variations Narve, Njorve, Nare, Nere,
which means "he who binds." They are called Njares, because they belong
to the clan of Njorvi-Nare.
Volundarkvida (str. 19, with the following prose addition) makes Nidad's
queen command Volund's knee-sinews to be cut. Of such a cruelty the older
poem, "Deor the Skald's Complaint," knows nothing. This poem relates, on
the other hand, that Nidad bound Volund with a fetter made from a strong
sinew:
siththan hinne Nidhad on
nede legde
sveoncre seono-bende.
Though Volund is in the highest degree skilful, he is not able to
free himself from these bonds. They are of magic kind, and resemble
those _örlogthættir_ which are tied by Mimer's kinswoman Urd. Nidad
accordingly here appears in Mimer-Njorve's character as "binder." With
this fetter of sinew we must compare the one with which Loke was bound,
and that tough and elastic one which was made in the lower world and
which holds Fenrer bound until Ragnarok. And as Volund--a circumstance
already made probable, and one that shall be fully proved below--actually
regards himself as insulted by the gods, and has planned a terrible
revenge against them, then it is an enemy of Odin that Nidhad here binds,
and the above-cited paraphrase for the death-dis, Urd, employed by Egil
Skallagrimson, "the kinswoman of the binder (Njorva) of Odin's foes" (see
No. 85), also becomes applicable here.
The tradition concerning Nidhad's original identity with Mimer flourished
for a long time in the German middle-age sagas, and passed thence into
the Vilkinasaga, where the banished Volund became Mimer's smith. The
author of Vilkinasaga, compiling both from German and from Norse sources,
saw Volund in the German records as a smith in Mimer's employ, and in the
Norse sagas he found him as Nidhad's smith, and from the two synonyms he
made two persons.
The Norse form of the name most nearly corresponding to the Old English
Nidhad is _Nidi_, "the subterranean," and that Mimer also among the
Norsemen was known by this epithet is plain both from the Sol-song
and from Völuspa. The skald of the Sol-song sees in the lower world
"Nide's sons, seven together, drinking the clear mead from the well
of ring-Regin." The well of the lower world with the "clear mead" is
Mimer's fountain, and the paraphrase ring-Regin is well suited to Mimer,
who possessed among other treasures the wonderful ring of Hotherus.
Völuspa speaks of Nide's mountain, the Hvergelmer mountain, from which
the subterranean dragon Nidhog flies (see No. 75), and of Nide's plains
where Sindre's race have their golden hall. Sindre is, as we know, one
of the most celebrated primeval smiths of mythology, and he smithied
Thor's lightning hammer, Frey's golden boar, and Odin's spear Gungner
(Gylfaginning). Dwelling with his kinsmen in Mimer's realm, he is one
of the artists whom the ruler of the lower world kept around him (cp.
No. 53). Several of the wonderful things made by these artists, as for
instance the harvest-god's Skidbladner, and golden boar, and Sif's
golden locks, are manifestly symbols of growth or vegetation. The
same is therefore true of the original Teutonic primeval smiths as of
the Ribhuians, the ancient smiths of Rigveda, that they make not only
implements and weapons, but also grass and herbs. Out of the lower world
grows the world-tree, and is kept continually fresh by the liquids of
the sacred fountains. In the abyss of the lower world and in the sea is
ground that mould which makes the fertility of Midgard possible (see No.
80); in the lower world "are smithied" those flowers and those harvests
which grow out of this mould, and from the manes of the subterranean
horses, and from their foaming bridles, falls on the fields and meadows
that honey-dew "which gives harvests to men."
Finally, it must be pointed out that when Nidhad binds Volund, the foe of
the gods, this is in harmony with Mimer's activity throughout the epic
of the myths as the friend of the Asa-gods, and as the helper of Odin,
his sister's son, in word and deed.
Further evidences of Mimer's identity with Nidhad are to be found in the
Svipdag myth, which I shall discuss further on.
Vafthrudnersmal states in strophe 25 that "beneficent _regin_ (makers)
created Ny and Nedan to count times for men," this being said in
connection with what it states about Narve, Nat, and Dag. In the Völuspa
dwarf-list we find that the chief of these _regin_ was Modsogner,
whose identity with Mimer has been shown (see No. 53). Modsogner-Mimer
created among other "dwarfs" also Ny and Nedan (Völuspa, 11). These are,
therefore, his sons at least in the sense that they are indebted to him
for their origin. The expressions to create and to beget are very closely
related in the mythology. Of Njord Vafthrudner also says (str. 39) that
"wise _regin_ created him" in Vanaheim.
As sons of Nide-Mimer the changes of the moon have been called
after his name _Nidi_, and collectively they have been called by
the plural _Nidgar_, in a later time _Nidar_. And as Nat's brothers
they are enumerated along with her as a stereotyped alliteration. In
Vafthrudnersmal Odin asks the wise giant whether he knows whence Nat and
Nidjar (_Nott med Nithom_) came, and Völuspa (6) relates that in the
dawn of time the high holy gods (_regin_) seated themselves on their
judgment-seats and gave names to Nat and Nidjar (_Nott ok Nithiom_). The
giving of a name was in heathen times a sacred act, which implied an
adoption in the name-giver's family or circle of friends.
_Nidjar_ also appears to have had his signification of moon-changes in
regard to the changes of months. According to Saxo (see No. 46), King
Gorm saw in the lower world twelve sons of Gudmund-Mimer, all "of noble
appearance." Again, Solarljod's skald says that the sons of Nide, whom
he saw in the lower world, were "seven together." From the standpoint of
a nature-symbol the difference in these statements is explained by the
fact that the months of the year were counted as twelve, but in regard
to seasons and occupations there were seven divisions: _gor-mánudr_,
_frer-m._, _hrut-m._, _ein-m._, _sol-m._, _sel-m._, _kornskurdar-mánudr_.
Seven is the epic-mythological number of these _Nidjar_. To the saga in
regard to these I shall return in No. 94.
88.
A GENERAL REVIEW OF MIMER'S NAMES AND EPITHETS.
The names, epithets, and paraphrases with which the king of the lower
world, the ward of the fountain of wisdom, was designated, according to
the statements hitherto made, are the following:
(1) _Mimir_ (_Hodd-mímir_, _Mímr_, _Mími_, _Mime der alte_).
(2) _Narfi_ (_Narvi_, _Njorvi_, _Nörr_, _Nari_, _Neri_).
(3) _Nidi_ (_Nidhad_, _Nidadr_, _Nidudr_, _Nidungr_).
These three names, which means the Thinker, the Binder, the Subterranean,
are presumably all ancient.
(4) _Modsognir_, "the mead-drinker."
(5) _Hoddrofnir_, presumably "the one bounteous in treasures."
(6) _Gauta spjalli_, "the one with whom Gaute (Odin) counsels."
(7) _Baug-regin_, Ring-regin.
(8) _Godmundr_, the name by which Mimer appears in Christian middle-age
sagas of Norse origin. To these names may still be added:
(9) _Fimbulthulr_, "the great teacher" (the lecturer). Havamál (str.
142; cp. str. 80) says that _Fimbulthulr_ drew (_fadi_) the runes, that
_ginn-regin_ "made" (_gordo_) them, that is to say, in the older sense of
the word, prepared them for use, and that Odin (_hroptr raugna_) carved
(_reist_) them. In the strophes immediately preceding, it is said that
Odin, by self-sacrifice, begot runes out of the deep and fimbul-songs
from Beistla's brother. These statements, joined with those which mention
how the runes given by Mimer were spread over the world, and were taught
by various clan-chiefs to different clans (see No. 53), make it evident
that a perfect myth had been developed in regard to the origin of the
runes and the spreading of runic knowledge. Mimer, as the possessor
of the well of wisdom, was the inventor or source of the runes. When
Sigrdrifumal (str. 13) says that they dropped out of Hoddrofner's horn,
this is, figuratively speaking, the same as Havamál tells, when it states
that Fimbulthul carved them. The oldest powers (_ginnregin_) and Odin
afterwards developed and spread them.
At the time of Tacitus, and probably one or two centuries earlier, the
art of writing was known among the Teutons. The runic inscriptions that
have come down to our time bear evidence of a Greek-Roman origin.
By this we do not mean to deny that there were runes--at least,
non-phonetic ones--before them. The many kinds of magic runes of which
our mythic records speak are perhaps reminiscences of them. At all events
we must distinguish the latter from the common runes for writing, and
also from the many kinds of cypher-runes the keys of which are to be
sought in the common phonetic rune-row.
(10) _Brimir_. By the side of the golden hall of Sindre, Völuspa (str.
36) mentions the giants Brimer's "bjór" hall, which is in _Okólnir_.
_Bjórr_ is a synonym for mead and ale (Alvism., 34). _Okólnir_ means "the
place where cold is not found." The reference is to a giant dwelling in
the lower world who presides over mead, and whose hall is situated in
a domain to which cold cannot penetrate. The myth has put this giant
in connection with Ymer, who in relative opposition to him is called
_Leirbrimir_, clay-Brimer (Fjöllsvinnsmal). These circumstances refer to
Mimer. So also Sigrdrifumal (str. 14), where it is said that "Odin stood
on the mountain with Brimer's sword" (_Brimis eggiar_), when Mimer's head
for the first time talked with him. The expression "Brimer's sword" is
ambiguous. As a head was once used as a weapon against Heimdal, a sword
and a head can, according to Skaldskaparmal, be employed as paraphrases
for each other, whence "Brimer's sword" may be the same as "Mimer's
head" (Skaldskaparmal 69, Cod. H.; cp. Skaldskaparmal, 8, and Gylfag.,
27). Sigrdrifumal certainly also employs the phrase in its literal
sense of a famous mythological sword, for, in the case in question, it
represents Odin as fully armed, with helmet on his head; and the most
excellent mythological sword, according to an added line in strophe 24 of
Grimnersmal (Cod. A.), bore Brimer's name, just as the same sword in the
German saga has the name Miminc (Biterolf v. 176, in Vilkinasaga changed
to Mimmung), doubtless because it at one time was in Mimer-Nidhad's
possession; for the German saga (Biterolf, 157; cp. Vilkinasaga,
ch. 23) remembers that a sword called by Mimer's name was the same
celebrated weapon as that made by Volund (Weiland in Biterolf; Velint in
Vilkinasaga), and hence the same work of art as that which, according to
Vilkinasaga, Nidhad captured from him during his stay in Wolfdales.
89.
THE MEAD MYTH.
We have seen (Nos. 72, 73) that the mead which was brewed from the three
subterranean liquids destroys the effects of death and gives new vitality
to the departed, and that the same liquid is absorbed by the roots of the
world-tree, and in its trunk is distilled into that sap which gives the
tree eternal life. From the stem the mead rises into the foliage of the
crown, whose leaves nourish the fair giver of "the sparkling drink," in
Grimnersmal symbolised as Heidrun, from the streams of whose teats the
mead-horns in Asgard are filled for the einherjes. The morning dew which
falls from Ygdrasil down into the dales of the lower world contains the
same elements. From the bridle of Rimfaxe and from the horses of the
valkyries some of the same dew also falls in the valleys of Midgard (see
No. 74). The flowers receive it in their chalices, where the bees extract
it, and thus is produced the earthly honey which man uses, and from which
he brews _his_ mead (cp. Gylfag., ch. 16). Thus the latter too contains
some of the strength of Mimer's and Urd's fountains (_veigar_--see Nos.
72, 73), and thus it happens that it is able to stimulate the mind
and inspire poetry and song--nay, used with prudence, it may suggest
excellent expedients in important emergencies (cp. Tacitus, _Germania_).
Thus the world-tree is among the Teutons, as it is among their kinsmen
the Iranians (see below), a _mead-tree_. And so it was called by the
latter, possibly also by the former. The name _miötvidr_, with which the
world-tree is mentioned in Völuspa (2) and whose origin and meaning have
been so much discussed, is from a mythological standpoint satisfactorily
explained if we assume that an older word, _miödvidr_, the mead-tree,
passed into the word similar in sound, _miötvidr_, the tree of fate (from
_miöt_, measure; cp. _mjötudr_ in the sense of fate, the power which
gives measure, and the Anglo-Saxon _metod_, Old Saxon _metod_, the giver
of measure, fate, providence).
The sap of the world-tree and the _veigar_ of the horn of the lower world
are not, however, precisely the same mead as the pure and undefiled
liquid from Mimer's fountain, that which Odin in his youth, through
self-sacrifice, was permitted to taste, nor is it precisely the same as
that concerning the possession of which the powers of mythology long
contended, before it finally, through Odin's adventures at Suttung's,
came to Asgard. The episodes of this conflict concerning the mead will be
given as my investigation progresses, so far as they can be discovered.
Here we must first examine what the heathen records have preserved in
regard to the closing episode in which the conflict was ended in favour
of Asgard. What the Younger Edda (Bragarædur) tells about it I must for
the present leave entirely unnoticed, lest the investigation should go
astray and become entirely abortive.
The chief sources are the Havamál strophes 104-110, and strophes 13
and 14. Subordinate sources are Grimnersmal (50) and Ynglingatal
(15). To this must be added half a strophe by Eyvind Skaldaspiller
(Skaldskaparmal, ch. 2).