of Ulysses and Laertes inscribed thereon, can of course be nothing but
a conjecture, based on the idea that the famous Teutonic traveller was
identical with Odysseus. Doubtless this idea has been strengthened by
the similarity between the names _Odr_, Goth., _Vods_, and Odysseus, and
by the fact that the name Laertes (acc. Laerten) has sounds in common
with the name of Svipdag's father. If, as Tacitus seems to indicate,
Asciburgium was named after its founder, we would find in _Asc-_ an
epithet of Orvandel's son, common in the first century after Christ and
later. In that case it lies nearest at hand to think of _aiska_ (Fick.
iii. 5), the English "ask," the Anglo-Saxon _ascian_, the Swedish
_äska_, "to seek," "search for," "to try to secure," which easily adapted
itself to Svipdag, who goes on long and perilous journeys to look for
Freyja and the sword of victory. I call attention to these possibilities
because they appear to suggest an ancient connection, but not for the
purpose of building hypotheses thereon. Under all circumstances it is of
interest to note that the Christian medieval Orentel saga locates the
Teutonic migration hero's home to the same part of Germany where Tacitus
in his time assumed that he had founded a citadel. The tradition, as
heard by Tacitus, did not however make the regions about the Rhine the
native land of the celebrated traveller. He came thither, it is said in
_Germania_, from the North after having navigated in the Northern Ocean.
And this corresponds with the mythology, which makes Svipdag an Inguæon,
and Svion, a member of the race of the Skilfing-Ynglings, makes him in
the beginning fight on the side of the powers of frost against Halfdan,
and afterwards lead not only the north Teutonic (Inguæonian) but also the
west Teutonic tribes (the Hermiones) against the east Teutonic war forces
of Hadding (see Nos. 38-40).
Memories of the Svipdag-myth have also been preserved in the story about
Hamlet, Saxo's Amlethus (Snæbjorn's _Amlodi_), son of Horvendillus
(Orvandel). In the medieval story Hamlet's father, like Svipdag's father
in the mythology, was slain by the same man, who marries the wife of
the slain man, and, like Svipdag in the myth, Hamlet of the medieval
saga becomes the avenger of his father Horvendillus and the slayer of
his stepfather. On more than one occasion the idea occurs in the Norse
sagas that a lad whose stepfather has slain his father broods over
his duty of avenging the latter, and then plays insane or half idiot
to avoid the suspicion that he may become dangerous to the murderer.
Svipdag, Orvandel's son, is reared in his stepfather's house amid all
the circumstances that might justify or explain such a hypocrisy.
Therefore he has as a lad received the epithet _Amlodi_, the meaning of
which is "insane," and the myth having at the same time described him
as highly-gifted, clever, and sharp-witted, we have in the words which
the mythology has attributed to his lips the key to the ambiguous words
which make the cleverness, which is veiled under a stupid exterior,
gleam forth. These features of the mythic account of Svipdag have been
transferred to the middle-age saga anent Hamlet--a saga which already
in Saxo's time had been developed into an independent narrative. I
shall return to this theme in a treatise on the heroic sagas. Other
reminiscences of the Svipdag-myth reappear in Danish, Swedish, and
Norwegian ballads. The Danish ballads, which, with surprising fidelity,
have preserved certain fundamental traits and details of the Svipdag-myth
even down to our days, I have already discussed. The Norwegian ballad
about "Hermod the Young" (_Landstad Norske Folkeviser_, p. 28), and its
Swedish version, "Bergtrollet," which corresponds still more faithfully
with the myth (Arvidson, i. 123), have this peculiar interest in
reference to mythological synonymics and the connection of the mythic
fragments preserved, that Svipdag appears in the former as in the Beowulf
poem and in the Younger Edda under the name Hermod, and that both
versions have for their theme a story, which Saxo tells about his Otharus
when he describes the flight of the latter through Jotunheim with the
rediscovered Syritha. It has already been stated above (No. 100) that
after Otharus had found Syritha and slain a giant in whose power she was,
he was separated from her on their way home, but found her once more and
liberated her from a captivity into which she had fallen in the abode of
a giantess. This is the episode which forms the theme of the ballad about
"Hermod the Young," and of the Swedish version of it. Brought together,
the two ballads give us the following contents:
The young Hermod secured as his wife a beautiful maiden whom he liberated
from the hands of a giantess. She had fallen into the hands of giants
through a witch, "gigare," originally _gýgr_, a troll-woman, Aurboda,
who in a great crowd of people had stolen her out of a church (the
divine citadel Asgard is changed into a "house of God"). Hermod hastens
on skees "through woods and caverns and recesses," comes to "the wild
sea-strand" (Elivagar) and to the "mountain the blue," where the giantess
resides who conceals the young maiden in her abode. It is Christmas Eve.
Hermod asks for lodgings for the night in the mountain dwelling of the
giantess and gets it. Resorting to cunning, he persuades the giantess
the following morning to visit her neighbours, liberates the fair maiden
during her absence, and flies on his skees with her "over the high
mountains and down the low ones." When the old giantess on her return
home finds that they have gone she hastens (according to the Norwegian
version accompanied by eighteen giants) after those who have taken flight
through dark forests with a speed which makes every tree bend itself
to the ground. When Hermod with his young maiden had come to the salt
fjord (Elivagar), the giantess is quite near them, but in the decisive
moment she is changed to a stone, according to the Norse version, by the
influence of the sun, which just at that time rose; according to the
Swedish version, by the influence of a cross which stood near the fjord
and its "long bridge."
The Swedish version states, in addition to this, that Hermod had a
brother; in the mythology, Ull the skilful skee-runner. In both the
versions, Hermod is himself an excellent skee-man. The refrains in
both read: "He could so well on the skees run." Below, I shall prove
that Orvandel, Svipdag's and Ull's father, is identical with Egil, the
foremost skee-runner in the mythology, and that Svipdag is a cousin of
Skade, "the dis of the skees." Svipdag-Hermod belongs to the celebrated
skee-race of the mythology, and in this respect, too, these ballads have
preserved a genuine trait of the mythology.
In their way, these ballads, therefore, give evidence of Svipdag's
identity with Hermod, and of the latter's identity with Saxo's Otherus.
Finally, a few words about the Svipdag synonyms. Of these, _Odr_ and
_Hermodr_ (and in the Beowulf poem _Svidferhd_) form a group which, as
has already been pointed out above, refer to the qualities of his mind.
Svipdag ("the glimmering day") and Skirner ("the shining one") form
another group, which refers to his birth as the son of the star-hero
Orvandel, who is "the brightest of stars," and "a true beam from the sun"
(see above). Again, anent the synonym _Eirekr_, we should bear in mind
that Svipdag's half-brother Gudhorm had the epithet _Jormunrekr_, and the
half-brother of the latter, Hadding, the epithet _thódrekr_. They are the
three half-brothers who, after the patriarch Mannus-Halfdan, assume the
government of the Teutons, and as each one of them has large domains,
and rules over many Teutonic tribes, they are, in contradistinction to
the princes of the separate tribes, great kings or emperors. It is the
dignity of a great king which is indicated, each in its own way, by all
these parallel names--_Eirekr_, _Jormunrekr_, and _thódrekr_.
[8] As Jordanes confounded the mythological Gudhorm-Jormunrek with the
historical Ermanarek, and connected with the history of the latter the
heroic saga of Ammius-Hamdir, it lay close at hand to confound Hamdir
with Heimdal, who, like Hamdir, is the foe of the mythical Jormunrek.
108.
SVIPDAG'S FATHER ORVANDEL. EVIDENCE THAT HE IS IDENTICAL WITH
VOLUND'S BROTHER EGIL. THE ORVANDEL SYNONYM EBBO (EBUR, IBOR).
Svipdag's father, Orvandel, must have been a mortal enemy of Halfdan, who
abducted his wife Groa. But hitherto it is his son Svipdag whom we have
seen carry out the feud of revenge against Halfdan. Still, it must seem
incredible that the brave archer himself should remain inactive and leave
it to his young untried son to fight against Thor's favourite, the mighty
son of Borgar. The epic connection demands that Orvandel also should take
part in this war, and it is necessary to investigate whether our mythic
records have preserved traces of the satisfaction of this demand in
regard to the mythological epic.
As his name indicates, Orvandel was a celebrated archer. That _Ör-_
in Orvandel, in heathen times, was conceived to be the word _ör_,
"arrow"--though this meaning does not therefore need to be the most
original one--is made perfectly certain by Saxo, according to whom
_Örvandill's_ father was named _Geirvandill_ (Gervandillus, _Hist._,
135). Thus the father is the one "busy with the spear," the son "the one
busy with the arrow."
Taking this as the starting point, we must at the very threshold of our
investigation present the question: Is there among Halfdan's enemies
mentioned by Saxo anyone who bears the name of a well-known archer?
This is actually the fact. Halfdan Berggram has to contend with two
mythic persons, Toko and Anundus, who with united forces appear against
him (_Hist._, 325). Toko, _Toki_, is the well-known name of an archer. In
another passage in Saxo (_Hist._, 265, &c.) one Anundus, with the help of
Avo (or Ano) _sagittarius_, fights against one Halfdan. Thus we have the
parallels:
The archer Orvandel is an enemy of Halfdan.
The man called archer Toko and Anundus are enemies of Halfdan.
The archer Avo and Anundus are enemies of Halfdan.
What at once strikes us is the fact that both the one called Toko (an
archer's name) and the archer Avo have as comrade one Anundus in the war
against Halfdan. Whence did Saxo get this Anundus? We are now in the
domain of mythology related as history, and the name Anund must have been
borrowed thence. Can any other source throw light on any mythic person by
this name?
There was actually an Anund who held a conspicuous place in mythology,
and he is none other than Volund. Volundarkvida informs us that Volund
was also called Anund. When the three swan-maids came to the Wolfdales,
where the three brothers, Volund, Egil, and Slagfin, had their abode,
one of them presses Egil "in her white embrace," the other is Slagfin's
beloved, and the third "lays her arms around Anund's white neck."
enn in thrithia
theirra systir
varthi hvitan
hals Onondar.
Volund is the only person by name Anund found in our mythic records. If
we now eliminate--of course only for the present and with the expectation
of confirmatory evidence--the name Anund and substitute Volund, we get
the following parallels:
Volund and Toko (the name of an archer) are enemies of Halfdan.
Volund and the archer named Avo are enemies of Halfdan.
The archer Orvandel is an enemy of Halfdan.
From this it would appear that Volund was very intimately associated with
one of the archers of the mythology, and that both had some reason for
being enemies of Halfdan. Can this be corroborated by any other source?
Volund's brothers are called _Egill_ and _Slagfidr_ (_Slagfinnr_)
in Volundarkvida. The Icelandic-Norwegian poems from heathen times
contain paraphrases which prove that the mythological Egil was famous
as an archer and skee-runner. The bow is "Egil's weapon," the arrows
are "Egil's weapon-hail" (Younger Edda, 422), and "the swift herring
of Egil's hands" (_Har. Gr._, p. 18). A ship is called Egil's skees,
originally because he could use his skees also on the water. In
Volundarkvida he makes hunting expeditions with his brothers on skees.
Vilkinasaga also (29, 30) knows Egil as Volund's brother, and speaks of
him as a wonderfully skilful archer.
The same Volund, who in Saxo under the name Anund has Toko (the name of
an archer) or the archer Avo by his side in the conflict with Halfdan,
also has the archer Egil as a brother in other sources.
Of an archer Toko, who is mentioned in _Hist._, 487-490, Saxo tells the
same exploit as Vilkinasaga attributes to Volund's brother Egil. In Saxo
it is Toko who performs the celebrated masterpiece which was afterwards
attributed to William Tell. In Vilkinasaga it is Egil. The one like the
other, amid similar secondary circumstances, shoots an apple from his
son's head. Egil's skill as a skee-runner and the serviceableness of his
skees on the water have not been forgotten in Saxo's account of Toko. He
runs on skees down the mountain, sloping precipitously down to the sea,
Kullen in Scania, and is said to have saved himself on board a ship.
Saxo's Toko was therefore without doubt identical with Volund's brother
Egil, and Saxo's Anund is the same Volund of whom the Volundarkvida
testifies that he also had this name in the mythology.
Thus we have demonstrated the fact that Volund and Egil appeared in the
saga of the Teutonic patriarch Halfdan as the enemies of the latter,
and that the famous archer Egil occupied the position in which we
would expect to find the celebrated archer Orvandel, Svipdag's father.
Orvandel is therefore either identical with Egil, and then it is easy
to understand why the latter is an enemy of Halfdan, who we know had
robbed his wife Groa; or he is not identical with Egil, and then we know
no motive for the appearance of the latter on the same side as Svipdag,
and we, moreover, are confronted by the improbability that Orvandel does
nothing to avenge the insult done to him.
Orvandel's identity with Egil is completely confirmed by the following
circumstances.
Orvandel has the Elivagar and the coasts of Jotunheim as the scene of
his exploits during the time in which he is the friend of the gods and
the opponent of the giants. To this time we must refer Horvendillus'
victories over Collerus (Kollr) and his sister Sela (cp. the name of
a monster _Selkolla_--Bisk S., i. 605) mentioned by Saxo (_Hist._,
135-138). His surname _inn frækni_, the brave, alone is proof that the
myth refers to important exploits carried out by him, and that these
were performed against the powers of frost in particular--that is to
say, in the service of the gods and for the good of Midgard--is plain
from the narrative in the Younger Edda (276, 277). This shows, as is
also demanded by the epic connection, that the Asa-god Thor and the
archer Orvandel were at least for a time confidential friends, and that
they had met each other on their expeditions for similar purposes in
Jotunheim. When Thor, wounded in his forehead, returns from his combat
with the giant _Hrungnir_ to his home, _thrúdvángr_ (_thrúdvángar_,
_thrudheimr_,) Orvandel's wife Groa was there and tried to help him with
healing sorcery, wherein she would also have succeeded if Thor could have
made himself hold his tongue for a while concerning a report he brought
with him about her husband, and which he expected would please her. And
Groa did become so glad that she forgot to continue the magic song and
was unable to complete the healing. The report was, as we know, that, on
the expedition to Jotunheim from which he had now come home, Thor had met
Orvandel, carried him in his basket across the Elivagar, and thrown a toe
which the intrepid adventurer had frozen up to heaven and made a star
thereof. Thor added that before long Orvandel would come "home;" that is
to say, doubtless, "home to Thor," to fetch his wife Groa. It follows
that, when he had carried Orvandel across the Elivagar, Thor had parted
with him somewhere on the way, in all probability in Orvandel's own home,
and that while Orvandel wandered about in Jotunheim, Groa, the dis of
growth, had a safe place of refuge in the Asa-God's own citadel. A close
relation between Thor and Orvandel also appears from the fact that Thor
afterwards marries Orvandel's second wife Sif, and adopts his son Ull,
Svipdag's half-brother (see No. 102), in Asgard.
Consequently Orvandel's abode was situated south of the Elivagar
(Thor carried him _nordan_ or _Jötunheimum_--Younger Edda, 276), in
the direction Thor had to travel when going to and from the land of
the giants, and presumably quite near or on the strand of that mythic
water-course over which Thor on this occasion carried him. When Thor
goes from Asgard to visit the giants he rides the most of the way in his
chariot drawn by the two goats _Tanngnjóstr_ and _Tanngrisnir_. In the
poem Haustlaung there is a particularly vivid description of his journey
in his thunder chariot through space when he proceeded to the meeting
agreed upon with the giant Hrungner, on the return from which he met and
helped Orvandel across Elivagar (Younger Edda, 276). But across this
water and through Jotunheim itself Thor never travels in his car. He
wades across the Elivagar, he travels on foot in the wildernesses of the
giants, and encounters his foe face to face, breast to breast, instead
of striking from above with lightning. In this all accounts of Thor's
journeys to Jotunheim agree. Hence south of the Elivagar and somewhere
near them there must have been a place where Thor left his chariot and
his goats in safety before he proceeded farther on his journey. And as
we already know that the archer Orvandel, Thor's friend, and like him
hostile to the giants, dwelt on the road traveled by the Asa-god, and
south of the Elivagar, it lies nearest at hand to assume that Orvandel's
castle was the stopping place on his journey, and the place where he left
his goats and car.
Now in Hymerskvida (7, 37, 38) we actually read that Thor, on his way
to Jotunheim, had a stopping-place, where his precious car and goats
were housed and taken care of by the host, who accordingly had a very
important task, and must have been a friend of Thor and the Asa-gods in
the mythology. The host bears the archer name Egil. From Asgard to Egil's
abode, says Hymerskvida, it is about one day's journey for Thor when he
rides behind his goats on his way to Jotunheim. After this day's journey
he leaves the draught-animals, decorated with horns, with Egil, who takes
care of them, and the god continues his journey on foot. Thor and Tyr
being about to visit the giant Hymer--
Foro drivgom
dag thann fram
Asgardi fra,
unz til Egils quomo;
hirdi hann hafra
horngaufgasta
hurfo at haullo
er Hymir átti.
("Nearly all the day they proceeded their way from Asgard until they
came to Egil's. He gave the horn-strong goats care. They (Thor and Tyr)
continued to the great hall which Hymer owned.")
From Egil's abode both the gods accordingly go on foot. From what is
afterwards stated about adventures on their way home, it appears that
there is a long distance between Egil's house and Hymer's (cp. str.
35--_foro lengi_, _adr._, &c.). It is necessary to journey across the
Elivagar first--_byr fyr austan, Elivága hundviss Hymir_ (str. 5). In
the Elivagar Hymer has his fishing-grounds, and there he is wont to
catch whales on hooks (cp. str. 17--_a vâg roa_); but still he does not
venture far out upon the water (see str. 20), presumably because he has
enemies on the southern strand where Egil dwells. Between the Elivagar
and Hymer's abode there is a considerable distance through woody mountain
recesses (_holtrid_--str. 27) and past rocks in whose caverns dwell
monsters belonging to Hymer's giant-clan (str. 35). Thor resorts to
cunning in order to secure a safe retreat. After he has been out fishing
with the giant, instead of making his boat fast in its proper place on
the strand, as Hymer requests him to do, he carries the boat with its
belongings all the difficult way up to Hymer's hall. He is also attacked
on his way home by Hymer and all his giant-clan, and, in order to be able
to wield Mjolner freely, he must put down the precious kettle which he
has captured from the frost-giant and was carrying on his broad shoulders
(str. 35, 36). But the undisturbed retreat across the Elivagar he has
secured by the above-mentioned cunning.
Egil is called _hraunbúi_ (str. 38), an epithet the ambiguous meaning
of which should not be unobserved. It is usually translated with
rock-dweller, but it here means "he who lives near or at _Hraunn_"
(_Hrönn_). _Hraunn_ is one of the names of the Elivagar (see Nos. 59, 93;
cp. Younger Edda, 258, with Grimnersmal, 38).
After their return to Egil's, Thor and Tyr again seat themselves in the
thunder-chariot and proceed to Asgard with the captured kettle. But they
had not driven far before the strength of one of the horn-decorated
draught animals failed, and it was found that the goat was lame (str.
37). A misfortune had happened to it while in Egil's keeping, and this
had been caused by the cunning Loke (str. 37). The poem does not state
the kind of misfortune--the Younger Edda gives us information on this
point--but if it was Loke's purpose to make enmity between Thor and his
friend Egil he did not succeed this time. Thor, to be sure, demanded a
ransom for what had happened, and the ransom was, as Hymerskvida informs
us, two children who were reared in Egil's house. But Thor became
their excellent foster-father and protector, and the punishment was
therefore of such a kind that it was calculated to strengthen the bond of
friendship instead of breaking it.
Gylfaginning also (Younger Edda, i. 142, &c.) has preserved traditions
showing that when Thor is to make a journey from Asgard to Jotunheim it
requires more than one day, and that he therefore puts up in an inn at
the end of the first day's travel, where he eats his supper and stops
over night. There he leaves his goats and travels the next day eastward
(north), "across the deep sea" (_hafit that hit djúpa_), on whose
other side his giant foes have their abode. The sea in question is the
Elivagar, and the tradition correctly states that the inn is situated on
its southern (western) side.
But Gylfaginning has forgotten the name of the host in this inn. Instead
of giving his name it simply calls him a _buandi_ (peasant); but it knows
and states on the other hand the names of the two children there reared,
Thjalfe and Roskva; and it relates how it happened that one of Thor's
goats became lame, but without giving Loke the blame for the misfortune.
According to Gylfaginning the event occurred when Thor was on his way
to Utgard-Loke. In Gylfaginning, too, Thor takes the two children as a
ransom, and makes Thjalfe (_thjálfi_) a hero, who takes an honourable
part in the exploits of the god.
As shall be shown below, this inn on the road from Asgard to Jotunheim
is presupposed as well known in Eilif Gudrunson's Thorsdrapa, which
describes the adventures Thor met with on his journey to the giant
Geirrod. Thorsdrapa gives facts of great mythological importance in
regard to the inhabitants of the place. They are the "sworn" helpers
of the Asa-gods, and when it is necessary Thor can thence secure brave
warriors, who accompany him across Elivagar into Jotunheim. Among them an
archer plays the chief part in connection with Thjalfe (see No. 114).
On the north side of Elivagar dwell accordingly giants hostile to gods
and men; on the south side, on the other hand, beings friendly to the
gods and bound in their friendship by oaths. The circumstance that they
are bound by oaths to the gods (see Thorsdrapa) implies that a treaty has
been made with them and that they owe obedience. Manifestly the uttermost
picket guard to the north against the frost-giants is entrusted to them.
This also gives us an explanation of the position of the star-hero
Orvandel, the great archer, in the mythological Epic. We can understand
why he is engaged to the dis of growth, Groa, as it is his duty to
defend Midgard against the destructions of frost; and why he fights on
the Elivagar and in Jotunheim against the same enemies as Thor; and why
the mythology has made him and the lord of thunder friends who visit
each other. With the tenderness of a father, and with the devotion of a
fellow-warrior, the mighty son of Odin bears on his shoulders the weary
and cold star-hero over the foggy Elivagar, filled with magic terrors, to
place him safe by his own hearth south of this sea after he has honoured
him with a token which shall for ever shine on the heavens as a monument
of Orvandel's exploits and Thor's friendship for him. In the meantime
Groa, Orvandel's wife, stays in Thor's halls.