many heroic songs composed in heathen times have been connected as with
the myth concerning the moon-god and his descendants. As shall be shown
further on, the Niflungs are descendants of Nef's adopted son Hjuke, and
they are originally named after their adopted race-progenitor _Nefr_. A
more correct and an older form is perhaps _Hnefr_ and _Hniflungar_, and
the latter form is also found in the Icelandic literature. In Old English
the moon-god appears changed into a prehistoric king, _Hnäf_, also called
_Hoce_ (see Beowulf, 2142, and Gleeman's Tale). Hoce is the same name as
the Norse _Hjuki_. Thus while _Hnäf_ and _Hoce_ are identical in the Old
English poem "Beowulf," we find in the Norse source that the lad taken
aloft by Mane is called by one of the names of his foster-father. In
the Norse account the moon-god (_Nefr_) captures, as we have seen, the
children of one _Vidfinnr_, and at the same time he robs _Vidfinnr_ of
the priceless mead of inspiration found in the fountain _Byrgir_. In the
Old English saga _Hnäf_ has a son-in-law and vassal, whose name is _Finn_
(_Fin Folcvalding_), who becomes his bitterest foe, contends with him, is
conquered and pardoned, but attacks him again, and, in company with one
_Gudere_ (_Gunnr_), burns him. According to Saxo, Nanna's father _Gevarr_
has the same fate. He is attacked by a vassal and burnt. The vassal
is called Gunno (_Gunnr_, _Gudere_). Thus we have in the Old English
tradition the names _Hnäf_, _Hoce_, _Fin_, and _Gudere_; and in the
Norse tradition the corresponding names _Nefr_, _Hjuki_, _Vidfinnr_, and
_Gunnr_ (_Gunnarr_). The relation of the moon-god (_Nefr_) to _Vidfinnr_
is the mythological basis of _Fin's_ enmity to _Hnäf_. The burning is
common to both the Old English and the Norse sources. Later in this work
I shall consider these circumstances more minutely. What I have stated
is sufficient to show that the Old English tradition is in this point
connected with the Norse in a manner, which confirms _Nefr-Gevarr's_
identity with _Máni_, who takes aloft _Hjuki_ and robs _Vidfinnr_ of the
skaldic mead.
The tradition of _Gevarr-Nefr's_ identity with _Máni_ reappears in
Iceland once more as late as in Hromund Greipson's saga. There a person
called _Máni Karl_ shows where the hero of the saga is to find the sword
_Mistelteinn_. In Saxo, Nanna's father _Gevarr_ shows the beforementioned
Hotherus where he is to find the weapon which is to slay Balder. Thus
_Máni_ in Hromund's saga assumes the same position as _Gevarr_, Nanna's
father, occupies in Saxo's narrative.
All these circumstances form together a positive proof of the moon-god's
identity with Nanna's father. Further on, when the investigation has
progressed to the proper point, we shall give reasons for assuming that
_Vidfinnr_ of the Edda, the _Fin_ of the English heroic poem, is the same
person whom we have heretofore mentioned by the name _Sumbl Finnakonungr_
and _Svigdir_, and that the myth concerning the taking of the mead aloft
to the moon accordingly has an epic connection with the myth concerning
Odin's visit to the giant Fjalar, and concerning the fate which then
befell Nokve's slayer.
91.
THE MYTH CONCERNING THE MOON-GOD (_continued_).
The moon-god, like Nat, Dag, and Sol, is by birth and abode a lower-world
divinity. As such, he too had his importance in the Teutonic eschatology.
The god who on his journeys on "Nokve's holy way" serves _auldom at
ártali_ (Vafthrudnersmal, 23) by measuring out to men time in phases of
the moon, in months, and in years has, in the mythology also, received a
certain influence in inflicting suffering and punishment on sinners. He
is lord of the _heiptir_, the Teutonic Erinnyes (see No. 75), and keeps
those _limar_ (bundles of thorns) with which the former are armed, and in
this capacity he has borne the epithet _Eylimi_, which reappears in the
heroic songs in a manner which removes all doubt that Nanna's father was
originally meant. (See in Saxo and in Helge Hjorvardson's saga. To the
latter I shall return in the second part of this work, and I shall there
present evidence that the saga is based on episodes taken from the Balder
myth, and that Helge Hjorvardson is himself an imitation of Balder).
In this capacity of lord of the _Heiptir_ the moon-god is the power to
whom prayers are to be addressed by those who desire to be spared from
those sufferings which the _Heiptir_ represent (_Heithtom scal mána
qvedja_--Havamál, 137). His quality as the one who keeps the thorn-rods
of the _heiptir_ still survives in a great part of the Teutonic world in
the scattered traditions about "the man in the moon," who carries bundles
of thorns on his back (J. Grimm, _Myth._, 680; see No. 123).
92.
THE MOON-DIS NANNA. THE MERSEBURG FORMULA. BALDER'S NAME FALR.
Thus Nanna is the daughter of the ruler of the moon, of "the ward of the
atmosphere." This alone indicates that she herself was mythologically
connected with the phenomena which pertain to her father's domain
of activity, and in all probability was a moon-dis (goddess). This
assumption is fully confirmed by a contribution to Teutonic mythology
rescued in Germany, the so-called Merseburg formula, which begins as
follows:
Phol ende Uodan Falr and Odin
vuoron zi holza went to the wood,
dû vart demo Balderes then was the foot sprained
volon sin vous birenkit on Balder's foal.
thû biguolon Sinhtgunt. Then sang over him Sinhtgunt,
Sunna era svister, Sunna her sister,
thû biguolen Friia, then sang over him Frigg,
Volla era svister Fulla her sister;
thû biguolen Uodan then sang over him Odin
sô hê wola conda. as best he could.
Of the names occurring in this strophe Uodan-Odin, Balder, Sunna (synonym
of Sol--Alvissm., 17; Younger Edda, i. 472, 593), Friia-Frigg, and
Volla-Fulla are well known in the Icelandic mythic records. Only Phol and
Sinhtgunt are strangers to our mythologists, though Phol-_Falr_ surely
ought not to be so.
In regard to the German form Phol, we find that it has by its side the
form Fal in German names of places connected with fountains. Jacob Grimm
has pointed out a "Pholes" fountain in Thuringia, a "Fals" fountain
in the Frankish Steigerwald, and in this connection a "Balder" well in
Rheinphaltz. In the Danish popular traditions Balder's horse had the
ability to produce fountains by tramping on the ground, and Balder's
fountain in Seeland is said to have originated in this manner (cp. P. E.
Müller on Saxo, _Hist._, 120). In Saxo, too, Balder gives rise to wells
(_Victor Balderus, ut afflictum siti militem opportuni liquoris beneficio
recrearet, novos humi latices terram altius rimatus operuit_--p. 120).
This very circumstance seems to indicate that Phol, Fal, was a common
epithet or surname of Balder in Germany, and it must be admitted that
this meaning must have appeared to the German mythologists to be
confirmed by the Merseburg formula; for in this way alone could it be
explained in a simple and natural manner, that Balder is not named in the
first line as Odin's companion, although he actually attends Odin, and
although the misfortune that befalls "Balder's foal" is the chief subject
of the narrative, while Phol on the other hand is not mentioned again
in the whole formula, although he is named in the first line as Odin's
companion.
This simple and incontrovertible conclusion, that Phol and Balder in
the Merseburg formula are identical is put beyond all doubt by a more
thorough examination of the Norse records. In these it is demonstrated
that the name _Falr_ was also known in the North as an epithet of Balder.
The first books of Saxo are based exclusively on the myths concerning
gods and heroes. There is not a single person, not a single name, which
Saxo did not borrow from the mythic traditions. Among them is also a
certain _Fjallerus_, who is mentioned in bk. i. 160. In the question in
regard to the Norse form which was Latinised into _Fjallerus_, we must
remember that Saxo writes _Hjallus_ (_Hist._, pp. 371, 672) for _Hjali_
(cp. p. 370), and alternately _Colo_, _Collo_, and _Collerus_ (_Hist._,
pp. 56, 136, 181), and that he uses the broken form _Bjarbi_ for _Barri_
(_Hist._, p. 250). In accordance with this the Latin form _Fjallerus_
must correspond to the Norse _Falr_, and there is, in fact, in the whole
Old Norse literature, not a single name to be found corresponding to this
excepting Falr, for the name _Fjalarr_, the only other one to be thought
of in this connection should, according to the rules followed by Saxo, be
Latinised into _Fjallarus_ or _Fjalarus_, but not into _Fjallerus_.
Of this _Fjallerus_ Saxo relates that he was banished by an enemy, and
the report says that _Fjallerus_ betook himself to the place which is
unknown to our populations, and which is called _Odáins-akr_ (_quem ad
locum, cui Undensakre nomen est, nostris ignotum populis concessisse est
fama_--p. 160.)
The mythology mentions only a single person who by an enemy was
transferred to _Odáinsakr_, and that is Balder. (Of _Odáinsakr_ and
Balder's abode there, see Nos. 44-53).
The enemy who transfers _Falr_ to the realm of immortality is,
according to Saxo, a son of _Horvendillus_, that is to say, a son of
the mythological _Örvandill_, Groa's husband and Svipdag's father (see
Nos. 108, 109). Svipdag has already once before been mistaken by Saxo
for _Hotherus_ (see No. 101). _Hotherus_ is, again, the Latin form for
_Hödr_. Hence it is Balder's banishment by _Hödr_ to the subterranean
realms of immortality of which we here read in Saxo where the latter
speaks of Fal's banishment to _Odáinsakr_ by a son of Orvandel.
When Balder dies by a _flaug_ hurled by _Hödr_ he stands in the midst
of a rain of javelins. He is the centre of a _mannhringr_, where all
throw or shoot at him: _sumir skjóta á hann, sumir höggva til, sumir
berja grjóti_ (Gylfaginning). In this lies the mythical explanation of
the paraphrase _Fal's rain_, which occurs in the last strophe of a poem
attributed to the skald Gisle Surson. In Gisle's saga we read that he
was banished on account of manslaughter, but by the aid of his faithful
wife he was able for thirteen years to endure a life of persecutions and
conflicts, until he finally was surprised and fell by the weapons of his
foes. Surrounded by his assailants, he is said to have sung the strophe
in question, in which he says that "the beloved, beautiful, brave Fulla
of his hall," that is to say, his wife, "is to enquire for him, her
friend," for whose sake "Fal's rain" now "falls thick and fast," while
"keen edges bite him." In a foregoing strophe Gisle has been compared
with a "Balder of the shield," and this shield-Balder now, as in the
Balder of the myth, is the focus of javelins and swords, while he like
Balder, has a beautiful and faithful wife, who, like Nanna, is to take
his death to heart. If the name Nanna, as has been assumed by Vigfusson
and others, is connected with the verb _nenna_, and means "the brave
one," then _rekkilát_ Fulla, "the brave Fulla of Gisle's hall," is an
all the more appropriate reference to Nanna, since Fulla and she are
intimately connected in the mythology, and are described as the warmest
of friends (Gylfaginning). Briefly stated: in the poem Gisle is compared
with Balder, his wife with Nanna, his death with Balder's death, and the
rain of weapons by which he falls with _Fal's rain_.
In a strophe composed by _Refr_ (Younger Edda, i. 240) the skald offers
thanks to Odin, the giver of the skaldic art. The Asa-father is here
called _Fals hrannvala brautar fannar salar valdi_ ("The ruler of the
hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal"). This long
paraphrase means, as has also been assumed by others, the ruler of
heaven. Thus heaven is designated as "the hall of the drift of the way of
the billow-falcons of Fal." The "drift" which belongs to heaven, and not
to the earth, is the cloud. The heavens are "the hall of the cloud." But
in order that the word "drift" might be applied in this manner it had to
be united with an appropriate word, showing that the heavens were meant.
This is done by the adjective phrase "of the way of the billow-falcons
of Fal." Standing alone, "the drift of the way of the billow-falcons"
could not possibly mean anything else than the billow white with foam,
since "billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for ships, and the "way of the
billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for the sea. By adding the name _Falr_
the meaning is changed from "sea" to "sky." By Fal's "billow-falcons"
must therefore be meant objects whose course is through the air, just
as the course of the ships is on the sea, and which traverse the drift
of the sky, the cloud, just as the ships plough through the drift of
the sea, the white-crested billow. Such a paraphrase could not possibly
avoid drawing the fancy of the hearers and readers to the atmosphere
strewn with clouds and penetrated by sunbeams, that is, to Odin's hall.
Balder is a sun-god, as his myth, taken as a whole, plainly shows, and
as is manifested by his epithet; _raudbrikar rikr rækir_ (see No. 53).
Thus Fal, like Balder, is a divinity of the sun, a being which sends
the sunbeams down through the drifts of the clouds. As he, furthermore,
like Balder, stood in a rain of weapons under circumstances sufficiently
familiar for such a rain to be recognised when designated as Fal's, and
as he, finally, like Balder, was sent by an opponent to the realm of
immortality in the lower world, then _Falr_ and Balder must be identical.
Their identity is furthermore confirmed by the fact that Balder in early
Christian times was made a historical king of Westphalia. The statement
concerning this, taken from Anglo-Saxon or German sources, has entered
into the foreword to Gylfaginning. Nearly all lands and peoples have,
according to the belief of that time, received their names from ancient
chiefs. The Franks were said to be named after one Francio, the East
Goth after Ostrogotha, the Angles after Angul, Denmark after Dan, &c.
The name Phalia, Westphalia, was explained in the same manner, and as
Balder's name was Phol, Fal, this name of his gave rise to the name of
the country in question. For the same reason the German poem Biterolf
makes Balder (Paltram) into king _ze Pülle_. (Compare the local name
Pölde, which, according to J. Grimm, is found in old manuscripts written
_Polidi_ and _Pholidi_.) In the one source Balder is made a king in
Pholidi, since Phol is a name of Balder, and in the other source he is
for the same reason made a king in Westphalia, since Phal is a variation
of Phol, and likewise designated Balder. "Biterolf" has preserved the
record of the fact that Balder was not only the stateliest hero to be
found, but also the most pure in morals, and a man much praised. Along
with Balder, Gylfaginning speaks of another son of Odin, _Siggi_, who
is said to have become a king in Frankland. The same reason for which
Fal-Balder was made a king in Westphalia also made the apocryphal _Siggi_
in question the progenitor of Frankian kings. The Frankian branch to
which the Merovingian kings belonged bore the name _Sigambrians_, and to
explain this name the son _Siggi_ was given to Odin, and he was made the
progenitor and eponym of the Sigambrians.
After this investigation which is to be continued more elaborately in
another volume, I now return to the Merseburg formula:
"Fall and Odin
Went to the wood,
Then the foot was sprained
Of Balder's foal."
With what here is said about Balder's steed, we must compare what Saxo
relates about Balder himself: _Adeo in adversam corporis valetudinem
incidit, ut ni pedibus quidem incedere posset_ (_Hist._, 120).
The misfortune which happened first to Balder and then to Balder's horse
must be counted among the warnings which foreboded the death of the son
of Odin. There are also other passages which indicate that Balder's
horse must have had a conspicuous signification in the mythology, and
the tradition concerning Balder as rider is preserved not only in
northern sources (Lokasenna, Gylfaginning), and in the Merseburg formula,
but also in the German poetry of the middle ages. That there was some
witchcraft connected with this misfortune which happened to Balder's
horse is evident from the fact that the magic songs sung by the goddesses
accompanying him availed nothing. According to the Norse ancient records,
the women particularly exercise the healing art of witchcraft (compare
Groa and Sigrdrifva), but still Odin has the profoundest knowledge of the
secrets of this art; he is _galdrs fadir_ (Veg., 3). And so Odin comes
in this instance, and is successful after the goddesses have tried in
vain. We must fancy that the goddesses make haste to render assistance in
the order in which they ride in relation to Balder, for the event would
lose its seriousness if we should conceive Odin as being very near to
Balder from the beginning, but postponing his activity in order to shine
afterwards with all the greater magic power, which nobody disputed.
The goddesses constitute two pairs of sisters: Sinhtgunt and her sister
Sunna, and Frigg and her sister Fulla. According to the Norse sources,
Frigg is Balder's mother. According to the same records, Fulla is always
near Frigg, enjoys her whole confidence, and wears a diadem as a token of
her high rank among the goddesses. An explanation of this is furnished
by the Merseburg formula, which informs us that Fulla is Frigg's sister,
and so a sister of Balder's mother. And as Odin is Balder's father, we
find in the Merseburg formula the Balder of the Norse records, surrounded
by the kindred assigned to him in these records.
Under such circumstances it would be strange, indeed, if Sinhtgunt and
the sun-dis, Sunna, did not also belong to the kin of the sun-god,
Balder, as they not only take part in this excursion of the Balder
family, but are also described as those nearest to him, and as the first
who give him assistance.
The Norse records have given to Balder as wife Nanna, daughter of that
divinity which under Odin's supremacy is the ward of the atmosphere
and the owner of the moon-ship. If the continental Teutons in their
mythological conceptions also gave Balder a wife devoted and faithful
as Nanna, then it would be in the highest degree improbable that
the Merseburg formula should not let her be one of those who, as a
body-guard, attend Balder on his expedition to the forest. Besides Frigg
and Fulla, there are two goddesses who accompany Balder. One of them is
a sun-dis, as is evident from the name Sunna; the other, Sinhtgunt, is,
according to Bugge's discriminating interpretation of this epithet, the
dis "who night after night has to battle her way." A goddess who is the
sister of the sun-dis, but who not in the daytime but in the night has
to battle on her journey across the sky, must be a goddess of the moon,
a moon-dis. This moon-goddess is the one who is nearest at hand to bring
assistance to Balder. Hence she can be none else than Nanna, who we know
is the daughter of the owner of the moon-ship. The fact that she has to
battle her way across the sky is explained by the Norse mythic statement,
according to which the wolf-giant Hate is greedy to capture the moon,
and finally secures it as his prey (Völuspa, Gylfaginning). In the poem
about Helge Hjorvardson, which is merely a free reproduction of the
materials in the Balder-myth (which shall be demonstrated in the second
part of this work), the giant Hate is conquered by the hero of the poem,
a Balder figure, whose wife is a dis, who, "white" herself, has a shining
horse (str. 25, 28), controls weather and harvests (str. 28), and makes
_nightly_ journeys on her steed, and "inspects the harbours" (str. 25).
The name Nanna (from the verb _nenna_; cp. Vigfusson, _Lex._) means "the
brave one." With her husband she has fought the battles of light, and in
the Norse, as in the Teutonic, mythology, she was with all her tenderness
a heroine.
The Merseburg formula makes the sun-dis and the moon-dis sisters. The
Norse variation of the Teutonic myth has done the same. Vafthrudnersmal
and Gylfaginning (ch. 11) inform us that the divinities which govern
the chariots of the sun and moon were brother and sister, but from the
masculine form _Máni_ Gylfaginning has drawn the false conclusion that
the one who governed the car of the moon was not a sister but a brother
of the sun. In the mythology a masculine divinity _Máni_ was certainly
known, but he was the father of the sun-dis and moon-dis, and identical
with _Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr_, the owner of the moon-ship. The god _Máni_ is
the father of the sun-dis for the same reason as Nat is the mother of Dag.
Vafthrudnersmal informs us that the father of the managers of the sun-
and moon-cars was called _Mundilföri_. We are already familiar with
this mythic personality (see Nos. 81-83) as the one who is appointed to
superintend the mechanism of the world, by whose _Möndull_ the starry
firmament is revolved. It is not probable that the power governing the
motion of the stars is any other than the one who under Odin's supremacy
is ruler of the sun and moon, and ward of all the visible phenomena in
space, among which are also the stars. As, by comparison of the old
records, we have thus reached the conclusion that the managers of the
sun and moon are daughters of the ward of the atmosphere, and as we have
also learned that they are daughters of him who superintends the motion
of the constellations, we are unable to see anything but harmony in these
statements. _Mundilföri_ and _Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr_ are the same person.
It should be added that the moon-goddess, like her father, could be
called _Máni_ without there being any obstacle in the masculine form of
the word. The name of the goddess _Skadi_ is also masculine in form, and
is inflected as a masculine noun (oblique case, _Skada_--Younger Edda,
212, 268).
93.
COSMOGRAPHIC REVIEW.
In the preceding pages various scattered contributions have been made
to Teutonic cosmography, and particularly to the topography of the
lower world. It may not be out of the way to gather and complete these
fragments.
The world-tree's three roots, which divide themselves in the lower
world and penetrate through the three lower-world fountains into the
foundations of the world-structure and hold it together, stand in a
direction from north to south--the northernmost over the Hvergelmer
fountain, with its cold waters; the middle one over Mimer's well, which
is the fountain of spiritual forces; and the third over Urd's well, whose
liquids give warmth to Ygdrasil (see No. 63).
In a north and south direction stands likewise the bridge _Bifröst_, also
called _Bilröst_, _Ásbru_ (Grimnersmal, 29), and in a bold paraphrase,
hitherto not understood, _thiodvitnis fiscr_, "the fish of the
folk-wolf." The paraphrase occurs in Grimnersmal (21) in its description
of Valhal and other abodes of the gods:
thytr thund,
unir thiódvitnis
fiscr flódi i
árstraumr thickir
ofmicil
valglaumi at vatha.
"Thund (the air-river) roars. The fish of the folk-wolf stands secure in
the stream. To the noisy crowd of sword-fallen men the current seems too
strong to wade through."