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Teutonic Mythology
Gods and Goddesses
of the Northland
IN
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_
BY
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. III.
PUBLISHED BY THE
NORRŒNA SOCIETY,
LONDON COPENHAGEN STOCKHOLM BERLIN NEW YORK
1906
_OF THE_
Viking Edition
_There are but six hundred and fifty sets made for the world,
of which this is_
_No._ 99
[Illustration: NORRŒNA]
COPYRIGHT,
T. H. SMART,
1905.
[Illustration: THOR'S JOURNEY TO GIERRODSGARD.
(_From an etching by Lorenz Frölich._)
Loke, in the guise of a falcon, having been captured by Geirrod, promised
if released to bring Thor into the power of the giant without his hammer,
belt or iron gloves. Thor being persuaded by the crafty Loke, started
upon the journey. When he came to the river Vimer he attempted to ford
it, though the stream had become a great torrent. As he reached the
center the waters rose rapidly until they washed over his shoulders
and he seemed to be in imminent danger of being carried away. At this
juncture, looking toward the source of the river, he perceived Gjalp,
Geirrod's daughter, who stood astride the stream and was causing its
rapid growth. He thereupon seized a stone and threw it with his usual
precision at the offending woman, who retreated. But it was with much
struggling that Thor reached the bank which, however, he would have had
great difficulty in ascending but for his fortune to seize a projecting
shrub, by the aid of which he drew himself out of the raging waters.
See page 933.]
TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOLUME THREE
Page
Story of the Seven Sleepers 707
The Anthropology of the Mythology 729
Svipdag and Groa 747
Menglad's Identity with Freyja 751
The Sword of Revenge 759
Orvandel, the Star-Hero 767
Svipdag Rescues Freyja from the Giants 770
Svipdag in Saxo's Account of Hotherus 781
Ericus Disertus in Saxo 793
Later Fortunes of the Volund Sword 808
The Svipdag Epithet "Skirnir" 815
Transformation and Death of Svipdag 819
Reminiscences of the Svipdag Myth 830
Orvandel, Egil and Ebbo 847
Frey Fostered in the Home of Orvandel 865
Ivalde, Svipdag's Grandfather 870
Parallel Myths in Rigveda 874
Judgment Passed on the Ivalde Sons 884
Olvalde and Ivalde Sons Identical 890
A Review of Thorsdrapa 932
Of Volund's Identity with Thjasse 952
The Worst Deed of Revenge 956
The Guard at Hvergelmer and the Elivagar 968
Slagfin, Egil, and Volund 971
The Niflung Hoard left by Volund 975
Slagfin-Gjuke a Star-Hero 981
Slagfin's Appearance in the Moon Myth 985
Review of the Synonyms of Ivalde's Sons 991
LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURES.
Page
VOL. III.
Thor's Journey to Geirrodsgard Frontispiece
Idun Brought Back to Asgard 807
Thor, Hymir, and the Midgard Serpent 915
King Svafrlame Secures the Sword Tyrfing 1003
THE MYTH IN REGARD TO THE LOWER WORLD.
(_Part IV. Continued from Volume II._)
94.
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS.
Völuspa gives an account of the events which forebode and lead up to
Ragnarok. Among these we also find that _leika Mims synir_, that is, that
the sons of Mimer "spring up," "fly up," "get into lively motion." But
the meaning of this has hitherto been an unsolved problem.
In the strophe immediately preceding (the 44th) Völuspa describes how it
looks on the surface of Midgard when the end of the world is at hand.
Brothers and near kinsmen slay each other. The sacred bonds of morality
are broken. It is the storm-age and the wolf-age. Men no longer spare
or pity one another. Knives and axes rage. Volund's world-destroying
sword of revenge has already been fetched by Fjalar in the guise of the
red cock (str. 41), and from the Ironwood, where it hitherto had been
concealed by Angerboda and guarded by Egther; the wolf-giant Hate with
his companions have invaded the world, which it was the duty of the gods
to protect. The storms are attended by eclipses of the sun (str. 40).
Then suddenly the Hjallar-horn sounds, announcing that the destruction
of the world is now to be fulfilled, and just as the first notes of this
trumpet penetrate the world, Mimer's sons spring up. "The old tree,"
the world-tree, groans and trembles. When Mimer's sons "spring up" Odin
is engaged in conversation with the head of their father, his faithful
adviser, in regard to the impending conflict, which is the last one in
which the gods are to take a hand.
I shall here give reasons for the assumption that the blast from the
Hjallar-horn wakes Mimer's sons from a sleep that has lasted through
centuries, and that the Christian legend concerning the seven sleepers
has its chief, if not its only, root in a Teutonic myth which in the
second half of the fifth or in the first half of the sixth century was
changed into a legend. At that time large portions of the Teutonic
race had already been converted to Christianity: the Goths, Vandals,
Gepidians, Rugians, Burgundians, and Swabians were Christians.
Considerable parts of the Roman empire were settled by the Teutons or
governed by their swords. The Franks were on the point of entering the
Christian Church, and behind them the Alamannians and Longobardians.
Their myths and sagas were reconstructed so far as they could be adapted
to the new forms and ideas, and if they, more or less transformed,
assumed the garb of a Christian legend, then this guise enabled them to
travel to the utmost limits of Christendom; and if they also contained,
as in the case here in question, ideas that were not entirely foreign to
the Greek-Roman world, then they might the more easily acquire the right
of Roman nativity.
In its oldest form the legend of "the seven sleepers" has the following
outlines (_Miraculorum Liber_, vii., i. 92):
"Seven brothers"[1] have their place of rest near the city of Ephesus,
and the story of them is as follows: In the time of the Emperor Decius,
while the persecution of the Christians took place, seven men were
captured and brought before the ruler. Their names were Maximianus,
Malchus, Martinianus, Constantius, Dionysius, Joannes, and Serapion.
All sorts of persuasion was attempted, but they would not yield. The
emperor, who was pleased with their courteous manners, gave them time
for reflection, so that they should not at once fall under the sentence
of death. But they concealed themselves in a cave and remained there
many days. Still, one of them went out to get provisions and attend
to other necessary matters. But when the emperor returned to the same
city, these men prayed to God, asking Him in His mercy to save them out
of this danger, and when, lying on the ground, they had finished their
prayers, they fell asleep. When the emperor learned that they were in
the above-mentioned cave, he, under divine influence, commanded that
the entrance of the cave should be closed with large stones, "for,"
said he, "as they are unwilling to offer sacrifices to our gods, they
must perish there." While this transpired a Christian man had engraved
the names of the seven men on a leaden tablet, and also their testimony
in regard to their belief, and he had secretly laid the tablet in the
entrance of the cave before the latter was closed. After many years, the
congregations having secured peace and the Christian Theodosius having
gained the imperial dignity, the false doctrine of the Sadducees, who
denied resurrection, was spread among the people. At this time it happens
that a citizen of Ephesus is about to make an enclosure for his sheep on
the mountain in question, and for this purpose he loosens the stones at
the entrance of the cave, so that the cave was opened, but without his
becoming aware of what was concealed within. But the Lord sent a breath
of life into the seven men and they arose. Thinking they had slept only
one night, they sent one of their number, a youth, to buy food. When he
came to the city gate he was astonished, for he saw the glorious sign
of the Cross, and he heard people aver by the name of Christ. But when
he produced his money, which was from the time of Decius, he was seized
by the vendor, who insisted that he must have found secreted treasures
from former times, and who, as the youth made a stout denial, brought him
before the bishop and the judge. Pressed by them, he was forced to reveal
his secret, and he conducted them to the cave where the men were. At
the entrance the bishop then finds the leaden tablet, on which all that
concerned their case was noted down, and when he had talked with the men
a messenger was despatched to the Emperor Theodosius. He came and kneeled
on the ground and worshipped them, and they said to the ruler: "Most
august Augustus! there has sprung up a false doctrine which tries to turn
the Christian people from the promises of God, claiming that there is no
resurrection of the dead. In order that you may know that we are all to
appear before the judgment-seat of Christ according to the words of the
Apostle Paul, the Lord God has raised us from the dead and commanded us
to make this statement to you. See to it that you are not deceived and
excluded from the kingdom of God." When the Emperor Theodosius heard this
he praised the Lord for not permitting His people to perish. But the men
again lay down on the ground and fell asleep. The Emperor Theodosius
wanted to make graves of gold for them, but in a vision he was prohibited
from doing this. And until this very day these men rest in the same
place, wrapped in fine linen mantles.
At the first glance there is nothing which betrays the Teutonic origin of
this legend. It may seemingly have had an independent origin anywhere in
the Christian world, and particularly in the vicinity of Ephesus.
Meanwhile the historian of the Franks, Bishop Gregorius of Tours (born
538 or 539), is the first one who presented in writing the legend
regarding the seven sleepers. In the form given above it appears through
him for the first time within the borders of the christianised western
Europe (see Gregorius' _Miraculorum Liber_, i., ch. 92). After him it
reappears in Greek records, and thence it travels on and finally gets to
Arabia and Abyssinia. His account is not written before the year 571 or
572. As the legend itself claims in its preserved form not to be older
than the first years of the reign of Theodosius, it must have originated
between the years 379-572.
The next time we learn anything about the seven sleepers in occidental
literature is in the Longobardian historian, Paulus Diaconus (born
about 723). What he relates has greatly surprised investigators;
for although he certainly was acquainted with the Christian version
in regard to the seven men who sleep for generations in a cave, and
although he entertained no doubt as to its truth, he nevertheless relates
another--and that a Teutonic--seven sleepers' legend, the scene of which
is the remotest part of Teutondom. He narrates (i. 4):
"As my pen is still occupied with Germany, I deem it proper, in
connection with some other miracles, to mention one which _there is on
the lips of everybody_. In the remotest western boundaries of Germany is
to be seen near the sea-strand under a high rock a cave where seven men
have been sleeping no one knows how long. They are in the deepest sleep
and uninfluenced by time, not only as to their bodies but also as to
their garments, so that they are held in great honour by the savage and
ignorant people, since time for so many years has left no trace either
on their bodies or on their clothes. To judge from their dress they must
be Romans. When a man from curiosity tried to undress one of them, it
is said that his arm at once withered, and this punishment spread such
a terror that nobody has since then dared to touch them. Doubtless it
will some day be apparent why Divine Providence has so long preserved
them. Perhaps by their preaching--for they are believed to be none other
than Christians--this people shall once more be called to salvation. In
the vicinity of this place dwell the race of the Skritobinians ('the
Skridfinns')."
In chapter 6 Paulus makes the following additions, which will be found
to be of importance to our theme: "Not far from that sea-strand which I
mentioned as lying far to the west (in the most remote Germany), where
the boundless ocean extends, is found the unfathomably deep eddy which
we traditionally call the navel of the sea. Twice a-day it swallows the
waves, and twice it vomits them forth again. Often, we are assured, ships
are drawn into this eddy so violently that they look like arrows flying
through the air, and frequently they perish in this abyss. But sometimes,
when they are on the point of being swallowed up, they are driven back
with the same terrible swiftness."
From what Paulus Diaconus here relates we learn that in the eighth
century the common belief prevailed among the heathen Teutons that in
the neighbourhood of that ocean-maelstrom, caused by Hvergelmer ("the
roaring kettle"), seven men slept from time immemorial under a rock.
How far the heathen Teutons believed that these men were Romans and
Christians, or whether this feature is to be attributed to a conjecture
by Christian Teutons, and came through influence from the Christian
version of the legend of the seven sleepers, is a question which it is
not necessary to discuss at present. That they are some day to awake to
preach Christianity to "the stubborn," still heathen Teutonic tribes is
manifestly a supposition on the part of Paulus himself, and he does not
present it as anything else. It has nothing to do with the saga in its
heathen form.
The first question now is: Has the heathen tradition in regard to the
seven sleepers, which, according to the testimony of the Longobardian
historian, was common among the heathen Teutons of the eighth century,
since then disappeared without leaving any traces in our mythic records?
The answer is: Traces of it reappear in Saxo, in Adam of Bremen, in Norse
and German popular belief, and in Völuspa. When compared with one another
these traces are sufficient to determine the character and original place
of the tradition in the epic of the Teutonic mythology.
I have already given above (No. 46) the main features of Saxo's account
of King Gorm's and Thorkil's journey to and in the lower world. With
their companions they are permitted to visit the abodes of torture
of the damned and the fields of bliss, together with the gold-clad
world-fountains, and to see the treasures preserved in their vicinity.
In the same realm where these fountains are found there is, says Saxo, a
_tabernaculum_ within which still more precious treasures are preserved.
It is an _uberioris thesauri secretarium_. The Danish adventurers also
entered here. The treasury was also an armoury, and contained weapons
suited to be borne by warriors of superhuman size. The owners and makers
of these arms were also there, but they were perfectly quiet and as
immovable as lifeless figures. Still they were not dead, but made the
impression of being half-dead (_semineces_). By the enticing beauty
and value of the treasures, and partly, too, by the dormant condition
of the owners, the Danes were betrayed into an attempt to secure some
of these precious things. Even the usually cautious Thorkil set a bad
example and put his hand on a garment (_amiculo manum inserens_). We are
not told by Saxo whether the garment covered anyone of those sleeping
in the treasury, nor is it directly stated that the touching with the
hand produced any disagreeable consequences for Thorkil. But further on
Saxo relates that Thorkil became unrecognisable, because a withering or
emaciation (_marcor_) had changed his body and the features of his face.
With this account in Saxo we must compare what we read in Adam of Bremen
about the Frisian adventurers who tried to plunder treasures belonging
to giants who in the middle of the day lay concealed in subterranean
caves (_meridiano tempore latitantes antris subterraneis_). This account
must also have conceived the owners of the treasures as sleeping while
the plundering took place, for not before they were on their way back
were the Frisians pursued by the plundered party or by other lower-world
beings. Still, all but one succeeded in getting back to their ships.
Adam asserts that they were such beings _quos nostri cyclopes appellant_
("which among us are called cyclops"), that they, in other words, were
gigantic smiths, who, accordingly, themselves had made the untold amount
of golden treasures which the Frisians there saw. These northern
cyclops, he says, dwelt within solid walls, surrounded by a water, to
which, according to Adam of Bremen, one first comes after traversing the
land of frost (_provincia frigoris_), and after passing that _Euripus_,
"in which the water of the ocean flows back to its mysterious fountain"
(_ad initia quædam fontis sui arcani recurrens_), "this deep subterranean
abyss wherein the ebbing streams of the sea, according to report,
were swallowed up to return," and which "with most violent force drew
the unfortunate seamen down into the lower world" (_infelices nautos
vehementissimo impetu traxit ad Chaos_).
It is evident that what Paulus Diaconus, Adam of Bremen, and Saxo here
relate must be referred to the same tradition. All three refer the scene
of these strange things and events to the "most remote part of Germany"
(cp. Nos. 45, 46, 48, 49). According to all three reports the boundless
ocean washes the shores of this saga-land which has to be traversed in
order to get to "the sleepers," to "the men half-dead and resembling
lifeless images," to "those concealed in the middle of the day in
subterranean caves." Paulus assures us that they are in a cave under a
rock in the neighbourhood of the famous maelstrom which sucks the billows
of the sea into itself and spews them out again. Adam makes his Frisian
adventurers come near being swallowed up by this maelstrom before they
reach the caves of treasures where the cyclops in question dwell; and
Saxo locates their tabernacle, filled with weapons and treasures, to a
region which we have already recognised (see Nos. 45-51) as belonging
to Mimer's lower-world realm, and situated in the neighbourhood of the
sacred subterranean fountains.
In the northern part of Mimer's domain, consequently in the vicinity of
the Hvergelmer fountain (see Nos. 59, 93), from and to which all waters
find their way, and which is the source of the famous maelstrom (see Nos.
79, 80, 81), there stands, according to Völuspa, a golden hall in which
Sindre's kinsmen have their home. Sindre is, as we know, like his brother
Brok and others of his kinsmen, an artist of antiquity, a cyclops, to
use the language of Adam of Bremen. The Northern records and the Latin
chronicles thus correspond in the statement that in the neighbourhood of
the maelstrom or of its subterranean fountain, beneath a rock and in a
golden hall, or in subterranean caves filled with gold, certain men who
are subterranean artisans dwell. Paulus Diaconus makes a "curious" person
who had penetrated into this abode disrobe one of the sleepers clad in
"Roman" clothes, and for this he is punished with a withered arm. Saxo
makes Thorkil put his hand on a splendid garment which he sees there, and
Thorkil returns from his journey with an emaciated body, and is so lean
and lank as not to be recognised.
There are reasons for assuming that the ancient artisan _Sindre_ is
identical with _Dvalinn_, the ancient artisan created by Mimer. I base
this assumption on the following circumstances:
_Dvalinn_ is mentioned by the side of _Dáinn_ both in Havamál (43) and
in Grimnersmal (33); also in the sagas, where they make treasures in
company. Both the names are clearly epithets which point to the mythic
destiny of the ancient artists in question. _Dáinn_ means "the dead one,"
and in analogy herewith we must interpret _Dvalinn_ as "the dormant one,"
"the one slumbering." (cp. the Old Swedish _dvale_, sleep, unconscious
condition). Their fates have made them the representatives of death
and sleep, a sort of equivalents of Thanatos and Hypnos. As such they
appear in the allegorical strophes incorporated in Grimnersmal, which,
describing how the world-tree suffers and grows old, make _Dáinn_ and
_Dvalinn_, "death" and "slumber," get their food from its branches, while
Nidhog and other serpents wound its roots.
In Hyndluljod (6) the artists who made Frey's golden boar are called
_Dáinn_ and _Nabbi_. In the Younger Edda (i. 340-342) they are called
_Brokkr_ and _Sindri_. Strange to say, on account of mythological
circumstances not known to us, the skalds have been able to use _Dáinn_
as a paraphrase for a rooting four-footed animal, and _Brokkr_ too has
a similar signification (cp. the Younger Edda, ii. 490, and Vigfusson,
Dict., under _Brokkr_). This points to an original identity of these
epithets. Thus we arrive at the following parallels:
Dáinn (-Brokkr) and Dvalinn made treasures together;
(Dáinn-) Brokkr and Sindri made Frey's golden boar;
Dáinn and Nabbi made Frey's golden boar;
and the conclusion we draw herefrom is that in our mythology, in which
there is such a plurality of names, _Dvalinn_, _Sindri_, and _Nabbi_ are
the same person, and that _Dáinn_ and _Brokkr_ are identical. I may have
an opportunity later to present further evidence of this identity.
The primeval artist Sindre, who with his kinsmen inhabits a golden hall
in Mimer's realm under the Hvergelmer mountains, near the subterranean
fountain of the maelstrom, has therefore borne the epithet _Dvalinn_,
"the one wrapped in slumber." "The slumberer" thus rests with his
kinsmen, where Paulus Diaconus has heard that seven men sleep from time
out of mind, and where Adam of Bremen makes smithying giants, rich in
treasures, keep themselves concealed in lower-world caves within walls
surrounded by water.
It has already been demonstrated that _Dvalinn_ is a son of Mimer (see
No. 53). Sindre-Dvalin and his kinsmen are therefore Mimer's offspring
(_Mims synir_). The golden citadel situated near the fountain of the
maelstrom is therefore inhabited by the sons of Mimer.
It has also been shown that, according to Solarljod, the sons of
_Mimer-Nidi_ come from this region (from the north in Mimer's domain),
and that they are in all seven:
Nordan sá ek rida
Nidja sonu
ok váru sjau saman;
that is to say, that they are the same number as the "economical months,"
or the changes of the year (see No. 87).
In the same region Mimer's daughter Nat has her hall, where she takes
her rest after her journey across the heavens is accomplished (see No.
93). The "chateau dormant" of Teutonic mythology is therefore situated
in Nat's udal territory, and Dvalin, "the slumberer," is Nat's brother.
Perhaps her citadel is identical with the one in which Dvalin and his
brothers sleep. According to Saxo, voices of women are heard in the
_tabernaculum_ belonging to the sleeping men, and glittering with weapons
and treasures, when Thorkil and his men come to plunder the treasures
there. Nat has her court and her attendant sisters in the Teutonic
mythology, as in Rigveda (_Ushas_). _Simmara_ (see Nos. 97, 98) is one of
the dises of the night. According to the middle-age sagas, these dises
and daughters of Mimer are said to be twelve in number (see Nos. 45, 46).
Mimer, as we know, was the ward of the middle root of the world-tree.
His seven sons, representing the changes experienced by the world-tree
and nature annually, have with him guarded and tended the holy tree
and watered its root with _aurgom forsi_ from the subterranean horn,
"Valfather's pledge." When the god-clans became foes, and the Vans seized
weapons against the Asas, Mimer was slain, and the world-tree, losing
its wise guardian, became subject to the influence of time. It suffers
in crown and root (Grimnersmal), and as it is ideally identical with
creation itself, both the natural and the moral, so toward the close of
the period of this world it will betray the same dilapidated condition as
nature and the moral world then are to reveal.
Logic demanded that when the world-tree lost its chief ward, the lord
of the well of wisdom, it should also lose that care which under his
direction was bestowed upon it by his seven sons. These, voluntarily or
involuntarily, retired, and the story of the seven men who sleep in the
citadel full of treasures informs us how they thenceforth spend their
time until Ragnarok. The details of the myth telling how they entered
into this condition cannot now be found; but it may be in order to point
out, as a possible connection with this matter, that one of the older
Vanagods, Njord's father, and possibly the same as Mundilfore, had the
epithet _Svafr_, _Svafrthorinn_ (Fjölsvinnsmal). _Svafr_ means _sopitor_,
the sleeper, and _Svafrthorinn_ seems to refer to _svefnthorn_,
"sleep-thorn." According to the traditions, a person could be put to
sleep by laying a "sleep-thorn" in his ear, and he then slept until it
was taken out or fell out.
Popular traditions scattered over Sweden, Denmark, and Germany have to
this very day been preserved, on the lips of the common people, of the
men sleeping among weapons and treasures in underground chambers or
in rocky halls. A Swedish tradition makes them equipped not only with
weapons, but also with horses which in their stalls abide the day when
their masters are to awake and sally forth. Common to the most of these
traditions, both the Northern and the German, is the feature that this
is to happen when the greatest distress is at hand, or when the end of
the world approaches and the day of judgment comes. With regard to the
German sagas on this point I refer to Jacob Grimm's _Mythology_. I simply
wish to point out here certain features which are of special importance
to the subject under discussion, and which the popular memory in certain
parts of Germany has preserved from the heathen myths. When the heroes
who have slept through centuries sally forth, the trumpets of the last
day sound, a great battle with the powers of evil (Antichrist) is to be
fought, _an immensely old tree, which has withered, is to grow green
again_, and a happier age is to begin.
This immensely old tree, which is withered at the close of the present
period of the world, and which is to become green again in a happier age
after a decisive conflict between the good and evil, can be no other than
the world-tree of Teutonic mythology, the Ygdrasil of our Eddas. The
angel trumpets, at whose blasts the men who sleep within the mountains
sally forth, have their prototype in Heimdal's horn, which proclaims the
destruction of the world; and the battle to be fought with Antichrist is
the Ragnarok conflict, clad in Christian robes, between the gods and the
destroyers of the world. Here Mimer's seven sons also have their task to
perform. The last great struggle also concerns the lower world, whose
regions of bliss demand protection against the thurs-clans of Nifelhel,
the more so since these very regions of bliss constitute the new earth,
which after Ragnarok rises from the sea to become the abode of a better
race of men (see No. 55). The "wall rock" of the Hvergelmer mountain and
its "stone gates" (Völuspa; cp. Nos. 46, 75) require defenders able to
wield those immensely large swords which are kept in the sleeping castle
on Nat's udal fields, and Sindre-Dvalin is remembered not only as the
artist of antiquity, spreader of Mimer's runic wisdom, enemy of Loke,
and father of the man-loving dises (see No. 53), but also as a hero.
The name of the horse he rode, and probably is to ride in the Ragnarok
conflict, is according to a strophe cited in the Younger Edda, _Modinn_;
the middle-age sagas have connected his name to a certain viking,
_Sindri_, and to Sintram of the German heroic poetry.
I now come back to the Völuspa strophe, which was the starting-point in
the investigation contained in this chapter:
Leika Mims synir
en mjotudr kyndisk
at hinu gamla
gjallarhorni;
hátt blæss Heimdallr,
horn er á lothi.
"Mimer's sons spring up, for the fate of the world is proclaimed by the
old gjallar-horn. Loud blows Heimdal--the horn is raised."
In regard to _leika_, it is to be remembered that its old meaning,
"to jump," "to leap," "to fly up," reappears not only in Ulfilas, who
translates _skirtan_ of the New Testament with _laikan_ (Luke i. 41, 44,
and vi. 23; in the former passage in reference to the child slumbering in
Elizabeth's womb; the child "leaps" at her meeting with Mary), but also
in another passage in Völuspa, where it is said in regard to Ragnarok,
_leikr hár hiti vid himin sjalfan_--"high leaps" (plays) "the fire
against heaven itself." Further, we must point out the preterit form
_kyndisk_ (from _kynna_, to make known) by the side of the present form
_leika_. This juxtaposition indicates that the sons of Mimer "rush up,"
while the fate of the world, the final destiny of creation _in advance_
and immediately beforehand, was proclaimed "by the old gjallarhorn." The
bounding up of Mimer's sons is the effect of the first powerful blast.
One or more of these follow: "Loud blows Heimdal--the horn is raised;
and Odin speaks with Mimer's head." Thus we have found the meaning of
_leika Mims synir_. Their waking and appearance is one of the signs best
remembered in the chronicles in popular traditions of Ragnarok's approach
and the return of the dead, and in this strophe Völuspa has preserved the
memory of the "chateau dormant" of Teutonic mythology.
Thus a comparison of the mythic fragments extant with the popular
traditions gives us the following outline of the Teutonic myth concerning
the seven sleepers:
The world-tree--the representative of the physical and moral laws of the
world--grew in time's morning gloriously out of the fields of the three
world-fountains, and during the first epochs of the mythological events
(_ár alda_) it stood fresh and green, cared for by the subterranean
guardians of these fountains. But the times became worse. The feminine
counterpart of Loke, Gulveig-Heid, spreads evil runes in Asgard and
Midgard, and he and she cause disputes and war between those god-clans
whose task it is to watch over and sustain the order of the world in
harmony. In the feud between the Asas and Vans, the middle and most
important world-fountain--the fountain of wisdom, the one from which
the good runes were fetched--became robbed of its watchman. Mimer was
slain, and his seven sons, the superintendents of the seven seasons,
who saw to it that these season-changes followed each other within the
limits prescribed by the world-laws, were put to sleep, and fell into a
stupor, which continues throughout the historical time until Ragnarok.
Consequently the world-tree cannot help withering and growing old during
the historical age. Still it is not to perish. Neither fire nor sword can
harm it; and when evil has reached its climax, and when the present world
is ended in the Ragnarok conflict and in Surt's flames, then it is to
regain that freshness and splendour which it had in time's morning.
Until that time Sindre-Dvalin and Mimer's six other sons slumber in that
golden hall which stands toward the north in the lower world, on Mimer's
fields. Nat, their sister, dwells in the same region, and shrouds the
chambers of those slumbering in darkness. Standing toward the north
beneath the Nida mountains, the hall is near Hvergelmer's fountain,
which causes the famous maelstrom. As sons of Mimer, the great smith of
antiquity, the seven brothers were themselves great smiths of antiquity,
who, during the first happy epoch, gave to the gods and to nature the
most beautiful treasures (Mjolner, Brisingamen, Slidrugtanne, Draupner).
The hall where they now rest is also a treasure-chamber, which preserves
a number of splendid products of their skill as smiths, and among these
are weapons, too large to be wielded by human hands, but intended to be
employed by the brothers themselves when Ragnarok is at hand and the
great decisive conflict comes between the powers of good and of evil.
The seven sleepers are there clad in splendid mantles of another cut than
those common among men. Certain mortals have had the privilege of seeing
the realms of the lower world and of inspecting the hall where the seven
brothers have their abode. But whoever ventured to touch their treasures,
or was allured by the splendour of their mantles to attempt to secure any
of them, was punished by the drooping and withering of his limbs.
When Ragnarok is at hand, the aged and abused world-tree trembles, and
Heimdal's trumpet, until then kept in the deepest shade of the tree, is
once more in the hand of the god, and at a world-piercing blast from this
trumpet Mimer's seven sons start up from their sleep and arm themselves
to take part in the last conflict. This is to end with the victory of
the good; the world-tree will grow green again and flourish under the
care of its former keepers; "all evil shall then cease, and Balder shall
come back." The Teutonic myth in regard to the seven sleepers is thus
most intimately connected with the myth concerning the return of the dead
Balder and of the other dead men from the lower world, with the idea of
resurrection and the regeneration of the world. It forms an integral
part of the great epic of Teutonic mythology, and could not be spared.
If the world-tree is to age during the historical epoch, and if the
present period of time is to progress toward ruin, then this must have
its epic cause in the fact that the keepers of the chief root of the tree
were severed by the course of events from their important occupation.
Therefore Mimer dies; therefore his sons sink into the sleep of ages.
But it is necessary that they should wake and resume their occupation,
for there is to be a regeneration, and the world-tree is to bloom with
new freshness.
Both in Germany and in Sweden there still prevails a popular belief which
puts "the seven sleepers" in connection with the weather. If it rains on
the day of the seven sleepers, then, according to this popular belief,
it is to rain for seven weeks thereafter. People have wondered how a
weather prophecy could be connected with the sleeping saints, and the
matter would also, in reality, be utterly incomprehensible if the legend
were of Christian origin; but it is satisfactorily explained by the
heathen-Teutonic mythology, where the seven sleepers represent those very
seven so-called economic months--the seven changes of the weather--which
gave rise to the division of the year into the months--_gormánudr_,
_frerm._, _hrútm._, _einm._, _sólm._, _selm._, and _kornskurdarmánudr_.
Navigation was also believed to be under the protection of the seven
sleepers, and this we can understand when we remember that the hall of
Mimer's sons was thought to stand near the Hvergelmer fountain and the
Grotte of the skerry, "dangerous to seamen," and that they, like their
father, were lovers of men. Thorkil, the great navigator of the saga,
therefore praises Gudmund-Mimer as a protector in dangers.
The legend has preserved the connection found in the myth between the
above meaning and the idea of a resurrection of the dead. But in the myth
concerning Mimer's seven sons this idea is most intimately connected
with the myth itself, and is, with epic logic, united with the whole
mythological system. In the legend, on the other hand, the resurrection
idea is put on as a trade-mark. The seven men in Ephesus are lulled into
their long sleep, and are waked again to appear before Theodosius, the
emperor, to preach a sermon illustrated by their own fate against the
false doctrine which tries to deny the resurrection of the dead.
Gregorius says that he is the first who recorded in the Latin language
this miracle, not before known to the Church of Western Europe. As his
authority he quotes "a certain Syrian" who had interpreted the story
for him. There was also need of a man from the Orient as an authority
when a hitherto unknown miracle was to be presented--a miracle that
had transpired in a cave near Ephesus. But there is no absolute reason
for assuming that Gregorius presents a story of his own invention.
The reference of the legend to Ephesus is explained by the antique
saga-variation concerning Endymion, according to which the latter was
sentenced to confinement and eternal sleep in a cave in the mountain
Latmos. Latmos is south of Ephesus, and not very far from there. This
saga is the antique root-thread of the legend, out of which rose its
localisation, but not its contents and its details. The contents are
borrowed from the Teutonic mythology. That Syria or Asia Minor was the
scene of its transformation into a Christian legend is possible, and
is not surprising. During and immediately after the time to which the
legend itself refers the resurrection of the seven sleepers, the time
of Theodosius, the Roman Orient, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt were
full of Teutonic warriors who had permanent quarters there. A _Notitia
dignitatum_ from this age speaks of hosts of Goths, Alamannians,
Franks, Chamavians, and Vandals, who there had fixed military quarters.
There then stood an _ala Francorum_, a _cohors Alamannorum_, a _cohors
Chamavorum_, an _ala Vandilorum_, a _cohors Gothorum_, and no doubt
there, as elsewhere in the Roman Empire, great provinces were colonised
by Teutonic veterans and other immigrants. Nor must we neglect to remark
that the legend refers the falling asleep of the seven men to the time of
Decius. Decius fell in battle against the Goths, who, a few years later,
invaded Asia Minor and captured among other places also Ephesus.
[1] For "brothers" the text, perhaps purposely, used the ambiguous word
_germani_. This would, then, not be the only instance where the word is
used in both senses at the same time. Cp. Quintil, 8, 3, 29.
95.
ON THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE MYTHOLOGY.
The account now given of the myths concerning the lower world shows
that the hierologists and skalds of our heathendom had developed the
doctrine in a perspicuous manner even down to the minutest details.
The lower world and its kingdom of death were the chief subjects with
which their fancy was occupied. The many sagas and traditions which
flowed from heathen sources and which described Svipdag's, Hadding's,
Gorm's, Thorkil's, and other journeys down there are proof of this, and
the complete agreement of statements from totally different sources in
regard to the topography of the lower world and the life there below
shows that the ideas were reduced to a systematised and perspicuous
whole. Svipdag's and Hadding's journeys in the lower world have been
incorporated as episodes in the great epic concerning the Teutonic
patriarchs, the chief outlines of which I have presented in the preceding
pages. This is done in the same manner as the visits of Ulysses and Æneas
in the lower world have become a part of the great Greek and Roman epic
poems.
Under such circumstances it may seem surprising that Icelandic records
from the middle ages concerning the heathen belief in regard to the
abodes after death should give us statements which seems utterly
irreconcilable with one another. For there are many proofs that the dead
were believed to live in hills and rocks, or in grave-mounds where their
bodies were buried. How can this be reconciled with the doctrine that
the dead descended to the lower world, and were there judged either to
receive abodes in Asgard or in the realms of bliss in Hades, or in the
world of torture?
The question has been answered too hastily to the effect that
the statements cannot be harmonised, and that consequently the
heathen-Teutonic views in regard to the day of judgment were in this most
important part of the religious doctrine unsupported.
The reason for the obscurity is not, however, in the matter itself, which
has never been thoroughly studied, but in the false premises from which
the conclusions have been drawn. Mythologists have simply assumed that
the popular view of the Christian Church in regard to terrestrial man,
conceiving him to consist of two factors, the perishable body and the
imperishable soul, was the necessary condition for every belief in a life
hereafter, and that the heathen Teutons accordingly also cherished this
idea.
But this duality did not enter into the belief of our heathen fathers.
Nor is it of such a kind that a man, having conceived a life hereafter,
in this connection necessarily must conceive the soul as the simple,
indissoluble spiritual factor of human nature. The division into two
parts, _lif ok sála_, _líkamr ok sála_, body and soul, came with
Christianity, and there is every reason for assuming, so far as the
Scandinavian peoples are concerned, that the very word soul, _sála_,
_sál_, is, like the idea it represents, an imported word. In Old Norse
literature the word occurs for the first time in Olaf Trygveson's
contemporary Halfred, after he had been converted to Christianity. Still
the word is of Teutonic root. Ulfilas translates the New Testament
_psyche_ with _saiwala_, but this he does with his mind on the Platonic
New Testament view of man as consisting of _three_ factors: spirit
(_pneuma_), soul (_psyche_), and body (_soma_). Spirit (_pneuma_) Ulfilas
translates with _ahma_.
Another assumption, likewise incorrect in estimating the
anthropological-eschatological belief of the Teutons, is that they are
supposed to have distinguished between matter and mind, which is a result
reached by the philosophers of the Occident in their abstract studies.
It is, on the contrary, certain that such a distinction never entered
the system of heathen Teutonic views. In it all things were _material_,
an _efni_ of course or fine grain, tangible or intangible, visible or
invisible. The imperishable factors of man were, like the perishable,
_material_, and a force could not be conceived which was not bound to
matter, or expressed itself in matter, or _was_ matter.
The heathen Teutonic conception of human nature, and of the factors
composing it, is most like the Aryan-Asiatic as we find the latter
preserved in the traditions of Buddhism, which assume more than three
factors in a human being, and deny the existence of a soul, if this is to
mean that all that is not corporal in man consists of a single simple,
and therefore indissoluble, element, the soul.
The anthropological conception presented in Völuspa is as follows: Man
consists of six elements, namely, to begin with the lower and coarser and
to end with the highest and noblest:
(1) The earthly matter of which the body is formed.
(2) A formative vegetative force.
(3) and (4) Loder's gifts.
(5) Honer's gifts.
(6) Odin's gifts.
Völuspa's words are these: The gods
fundu á landi found on the land
litt megandi with little power,
Ask ok Embla Ask and Embla
orlauglausa. without destiny.
Aund thau ne átto, Spirit they had not,
óth thau ne haufdo, "ódr" they had not,
la ne læti, neither "lá" nor "læti,"
ne lito goda. nor the form of the gods.
Aund gaf Odin, Spirit gave Odin,
oth gaf Henir, "ódr" gave Honer,
la gaf Lodur "lá" gave Loder
ok lito goda. and the form of the gods.
The two lowest factors, the earthly material and the vegetative force,
were already united in Ask and Embla when the three gods found them
"growing as trees." These elements were able to unite themselves simply
by the course of nature without any divine interference. When the sun
for the first time shone from the south on "the stones of the hall," the
vegetative force united with the matter of the primeval giant Ymer, who
was filled with the seed of life from Audhumbla's milk, and then the
"ground was overgrown with green herbs."
Thus man was not created directly from the crude earthly matter, but had
already been organised and formed when the gods came and from the trees
made persons with blood, motion, and spiritual qualities. The vegetative
force must not be conceived in accordance with modern ideas, as an
activity separated from the matter by abstraction and at the same time
inseparably joined with it, but as an _active matter_ joined with the
earthly matter.
Loder's first gift _lá_ with _læti_ makes Ask and Embla animal beings.
Egilsson's view that _lá_ means blood is confirmed by the connection
in which we find the word used. The _læti_ united with _lá_ (compare
the related Swedish word "_later_," manners) means the way in which a
conscious being moves and acts. The blood and the power of a motion which
is voluntary were to the Teutons, as to all other people, the marks
distinguishing animal from vegetable life. And thus we are already
within the domain of psychical elements. The inherited features, growth,
gait, and pose, which were observed as forming race- and family-types,
were regarded as having the blood as _efni_ and as being concealed
therein. The blood which produced the family-type also produced the
family-tie, even though it was not acquired by the natural process of
generation. A person not at all related to the family of another man
could become his _blódi_, his blood-kinsman, if they resolved _at blanda
blódi saman_. They thereby entered into the same relations to each other
as if they had the same mother and father.
Loder also gave at the same time another gift, _litr goda_. To understand
this expression (hitherto translated with "good complexion"), we must
bear in mind that the Teutons, like the Hellenes and Romans, conceived
the gods in human form, and that the image which characterises man was
borne by the gods alone before man's creation, and originally belonged to
the gods. To the hierologists and the skalds of the Teutons, as to those
of the Greeks and Romans, man was created _in effigiem deorum_ and had in
his nature a divine image in the real sense of this word, a _litr goda_.
Nor was this _litr goda_ a mere abstraction to the Teutons, or an empty
form, but a created _efni_ dwelling in man and giving shape and character
to the earthly body which is visible to the eye. The common meaning
of the word _litr_ is something presenting itself to the eye without
being actually tangible to the hands. The Gothic form of the word is
_wlits_, which Ulfilas uses in translating the Greek _prosopon_--look,
appearance, expression. Certain persons were regarded as able to separate
their _litr_ from its union with the other factors of their being, and
to lend it, at least for a short time, to some other person in exchange
for his. This was called to _skipta litum_, _vixla litum_. It was done
by Sigurd and Gunnar in the song of Sigurd Fafnersbane (i. 37-42). That
factor in Gunnar's being which causes his earthly body to present itself
in a peculiar individual manner to the eyes of others is transmitted to
Sigurd, whose exterior, affected by Gunnar's _litr_, accommodates itself
to the latter, while the spiritual kernel in Sigurd's personality suffers
no change.
Lit hefir thu Gunnars
oc læti hans,
mælsco thina
oc meginhyggior (Sig., i. 39).
Thus man has within him an inner body made in the image of the gods and
consisting of a finer material, a body which is his _litr_, by virtue of
which his coarser tabernacle, formed from the earth, receives that form
by which it impresses itself on the minds of others. The recollection
of the belief in this inner body has been preserved in a more or less
distorted form in traditions handed down even to our days (see for
example, Hyltén-Cavallius, _Värend och Virdarne_, i. 343-360; Rääf in
Småland, _Beskr. öfver Ydre_, p. 84).