peacemakers--Balder, Hoder, and Balder's son, Forsete. Balder
is mentioned as judge in the Younger Edda (90). As such he is
_liksamastr_--that is, "the most influential peacemaker." Of Forsete,
who inherits his father's qualities as judge, it is said in Grimnersmal
(15) that he _svefer allar sacir_, "settles all disputes." Hoder, who
both in name and character appears to be a most violent and thoughtless
person, seems to be the one least qualified for this calling.
Nevertheless he performed the duties of an arbitrator by the side of
Balder and probably under his influence. Saxo (_Hist._, 122) speaks
of him as a judge to whom men referred their disputes--_consueverat
consulenti populo plebiscita depromere_--and describes him as gifted
with great talents of persuasion. He had _eloquentiæ suavitatem_, and
was able to subdue stubborn minds with _benignissimo sermone_ (_Hist._,
116, 117). In Völuspa (60) the human race which peoples the renewed
earth is called _burir brodra tvegia_, "the sons of the two brothers,"
and the two brothers mentioned in the preceding strophe are Balder and
Hoder. Herewith is to be compared _ljóna kindir_ in Völuspa (14). In
Harbardsljod (42) the insolent mocker of the gods, Harbard, refers to the
miserable issue of an effort made by _jafnendr_, "the arbitrator," to
reconcile gods with certain ones of their foes. I think it both possible
and probable that the passage refers to the mythic event above described,
and that it contains an allusion to the fact that the effort to make
peace concerned the recovery of Frey and Freyja, who were delivered
as "brides" to naughty giants, and for which "brides" the peacemakers
received arrows and blows as compensation. Compare the expression _bæta
mundi baugi_ and Thor's astonishment, expressed in the next strophe, at
the insulting words, the worst of the kind he ever heard. Saxo describes
the giant in whose power Frey is, when he is rescued by his father, as a
cowardly and enervated monster whose enormous body is a _moles destituta
rubore_ (_Hist._, 268). In this manner ended the effort of the gods
to make peace. The three sons of Ivalde continue their journey to the
Wolfdales, inaccessible to the gods, in order that they thence might send
ruin upon the world.
113.
PROOFS THAT IVALDE'S SONS ARE IDENTICAL WITH OLVALDE'S.
Observations made in the course of my investigations anent Ivalde and his
sons have time and again led me to the unexpected result that Ivalde's
sons, Slagfin, Egil, and Volund, are identical with Olvalde-Alvalde's
sons, who, in the Grotte-song, are called _Idi_, _Urnir_ or _Aurnir_
(_Ornir_), and _thjazi_, and in the Younger Edda (p. 214) _thjazi_,
_Idi_, and _Gángr_. This result was unexpected and, as it seemed to
me in the beginning, improbable, for the reason that where Thjasse is
mentioned in the Elder Edda, he is usually styled a giant, while Volund
is called a prince or chief of elves in Volundarkvida. In Grimnersmal
(11) Thjasse is designated as _inn amátki iotunn_; in Harbardsljod
(19) as _enn thrudmothgi iotunn_; in Hyndluljod (30) as a kinsman of
Gymer and Aurboda. The Grotte-song (9) says that Thjasse, Ide, and
Aurnir were brothers of those mountain giants who were the fathers of
Menja and Fenja. In the Younger Edda he is also called a _jötunn_. In
the beginning of my researches, and before Volund's position in the
mythology was clear to me, it appeared to me highly improbable that a
prince among the elves and one of the chief artists in the mythology
could be characterised as a giant. Indeed I was already then aware
that the clan-names occurring in the mythology--_áss_, _vanr_, _álfr_,
_dvergr_, and _jötunn_--did not exclusively designate the descent of
the beings, but could also be applied to them on account of qualities
developed or positions acquired, regardless of the clan to which they
actually belonged by their birth. In Thrymskvida (15), so to speak in the
same breath, Heimdal is called both _áss_ and _vanr_--"_thá quath that
Heimdallr, hvitastr ása, vissi han vel fram sem vanir áthrir_." And Loke
is designated both as _áss_ and _jötunn_, although the Asas and giants
represent the two extremes. Neither Heimdal nor Loke are of the Asa-clan
by birth; but they are adopted in Asgard, that is, they are adopted Asas,
and this explains the appellation. Elves and dwarfs are doubtless by
descent different classes of beings, but the word dwarf, which in the
earliest Christian times became the synonym of a being of diminutive
stature, also meant an artist, a smith, whence both Vans and elves, nay,
even Fjalar, could be incorporated in the Völuspa dwarf-list. When,
during the progress of my investigations, it appeared that Volund and
his brothers in the epic of the mythology were the most dangerous foes
of the gods and led the powers of frost in their efforts to destroy the
world, it could no longer surprise me that Volund, though an elf prince,
was characterised as _inn ámátki iotunn, enn thrudmothgi iotunn_. But
there was another difficulty in the way: according to Hyndluljod and the
Grotte-song, Thjasse and his brothers were kinsmen of giants, and must
therefore undoubtedly have had giant-blood in their veins. But there are
kinsmen of the giants among the Asas too; and when in the progress of the
investigation it appears that Thjasse's mother is a giantess, but his
father a _hapt_, a god of lower rank, then his maternal descent, and his
position as an ally and chief of the giants, and as the most powerful
foe of Asgard and Midgard, are sufficient to explain the apparent
contradiction that he is at the same time a giant and a kinsman of the
giants, and still identical with the elf-prince, Volund. It should also
be observed that, as shall be shown below, the tradition has preserved
the memory of the fact that Volund too was called a giant and had kinsmen
among the giants.
The reasons which, taken collectively, prove conclusively at least to me,
that Ivalde's sons and Olvalde's are identical are the following:
(1) In regard to the names themselves, we note in the first place that,
as has already been pointed out, the name of the father of Ide, as
Aurnir-Gang, and of Thjasse appears with the variations _Allvaldi_,
_Ölvaldi_, and _Audvaldi_. To persons speaking a language in which the
prefixes _I-_, _Id-_, and _All-_ are equivalents and are substituted for
one another, and accustomed to poetics, in which it was the most common
thing to substitute equivalent nouns and names (for example, _Grjótbjörn_
for _Arinbjörn_, _Fjallgyldir_ for _Ásólfr_, &c.), it was impossible to
see in _Ivaldi_ and _Allvaldi_ anything but names designating the same
person.
(2) Anent the variation Olvalde we have already seen that its equivalents
Olmodr and Sumbl (Finnakonungr, _phinnorum rex_) allude to Slagfin's,
Orvandel-Egil's, and Volund's father, while Olvalde himself is said to be
the father of Ide, Aurnir, and Thjasse.
(3) Ajo's and Ibor's mother is called _Gambara_ in _Origo Longobardorum_
and in Paulus Diaconus. Aggo's and Ebbo's mother is called _Gambaruc_ in
Saxo. In Ibor-Ebbo and Ajo-Aggo we have re-discovered Egil and Volund.
The Teutonic stem of which the Latinised Gambara was formed is in all
probability _gambr_, _gammr_, a synonym of _gripr_ (Younger Edda, ii.
572), the German _Greif_. According to the Younger Edda (i. 314),
Thjasse's mother is the giantess _Greip_, daughter of _Geirrödr_. The
forms _grip_, neuter, and _greip_, feminine, are synonyms in the Old
Norse language, and they surely grew out of the same root. While Gambara
thus is Volund's mother, Thjasse's mother bears a name to which Gambara
alludes.
(4) The variation _Audvaldi_ means "the one presiding over riches,"
and the epithet finds its explanation in the Younger Edda's account of
the gold treasure left by Thjasse's father, and of its division among
his sons (p. 214.) It is there stated that Thjasse's father was _mjök
gullaudigr_. Ivalde's sons, who gave the gods golden treasures, were
likewise rich in gold, and in Volundarkvida Volund speaks of his and his
kinsmen's golden wealth in their common home.
(5) Of the manner in which Thjasse and his brothers divided the
golden treasure the Younger Edda contains, in the above passage, the
following statement: "When Olvalde died and his sons were to divide the
inheritance, they agreed in the division to measure the gold by taking
their mouths full of gold an equal number of times. Hence gold is called
in poetry the words or speech of these giants."
It is both possible and assumable that in the mythology the brothers
divided the gold in silence and in harmony. But that it should have
been done in the manner here related may be doubted. There is reason
to suspect that the story of the division of the gold in the manner
above described was invented in Christian times in order to furnish
an explanation of the phrase _thingskil thjaza_ in Bjarkamal, of
_Idja glysmál_ in the same source, and of _idja ord_, quoted in
_Malskrudsfrædi_. More than one pseudo-mythic story, created in the same
manner and stamped by the same taste, is to be found in the Younger
Edda. It should not be forgotten that all these phrases have one thing
in common, and that is, a public deliberation, a judicial act. _Mál_
and _ord_ do not necessarily imply such an allusion, for in addition to
the legal meaning, they have the more common one of speech and verbal
statements in general; but to get at their actual significance in the
paraphrases quoted we must compare them with _thingskil_, since in these
paraphrases all the expressions, _thingskil_, _glysmál_, and _ord_,
must be founded on one and the same mythic event. With _thingskil_ is
meant that which can be produced before a court by the defendant in a
dispute to clear up his case; and as gold ornaments are called Thjasse's
_thingskil_ in Bjarkamal, it should follow that some judicial act was
mentioned in the mythology, in which gold treasures made or possessed by
Thjasse were produced to clear up a dispute which, in some way or other,
touched him. From the same point of view Ide's _glysmál_ and Ide's _ord_
are to be interpreted. Ide's _glysmál_ are Ide's "glittering pleadings;"
his _ord_ are the evidence or explanation presented in court by the
ornaments made by or belonging to him. Now, we know from the mythology a
court act in which precious works of the smiths, "glittering pleadings,"
were produced in reference to the decision of a case. The case or dispute
was the one caused by Loke, and the question was whether he had forfeited
his head to Sindre or not. As we know, the decision of the dispute
depended on a comparison between Brok's and Sindre's works on the one
hand, and those of the Ivalde sons on the other. Brok had appeared before
the high tribunal, and was able to plead his and his brother's cause.
Ivalde's sons, on the other hand, were not present, but the works done
by them had to speak in their behalf, or rather for themselves. From
this we have, as it seems to me, a simple and striking explanation of
the paraphrases _thjaza thingskil_, _Idja glysmál_, _Idja ord_. Their
works of art were the glittering but mute pleadings which were presented,
on their part, for the decision of the case. That gold carried in the
mouth and never laid before the tribunal should be called _thingskil_
I regard as highly improbable. From heathen poems we cannot produce a
single positive proof that a paraphrase of so distorted and inadequate a
character was ever used.
(6) Saxo relates that the same Fridlevus-Njord who fought with
Anund-Volund and Avo-Egil wooed Anund's daughter and was refused, but was
married to her after Anund's death. Thus it would seem that Njord married
a daughter of Volund. In the mythology he marries Thjasse's daughter
Skade. Thus Volund and Thjasse act the same part as father-in-law of
Njord.
(7) Saxo further relates that Freyja-Syritha's father was married to the
_soror_ of Svipdag-Otharus. _Soror_ means sister, but also foster-sister
and playmate. If the word is to be taken in its strictest sense, Njord
marries a daughter of Volund's brother; if in its modified sense,
Volund's daughter.
(8) In a third passage (_Hist._, 50, 53), Skade's father appears under
the name Haquinus. The same name belongs to a champion (_Hist._, 323)
who assists Svipdag-Ericus in his combat with the Asa-god Thor and
his favourite Halfdan, and is the cause that Thor's and Halfdan's
weapons prove themselves worthless against the Volund sword wielded
by Svipdag-Ericus. There is, therefore, every reason for regarding
Haquinus as one of Saxo's epithets for Volund. The name _Hákon_, of which
Haquinus has been supposed to be the Latinised form, never occurs in the
Norse mythic records, but Haquinus is in this case to be explained as
a Latinisation with the aspirate usual in Saxo of the Old German Aki,
the Middle German Ecke, which occurs in the compositions Eckenbrecht,
Eckehard, and Eckesachs. In "Rosengarten," Eckenbrecht is a celebrated
weapon-smith. In Vilkinasaga, Eckehard is, like Volund, a smith who
works for Mimer; and Eckesachs is a sword made by the three dwarfs, of
which in part the same story is told as of Volund's sword of victory.
Thus while Haquinus and what is narrated of Haquinus refers to the smith
Volund, a person who in Saxo is called Haquinus assumes the place which
belongs to Thjasse in his capacity of Skade's father.
(9) In Lokasenna (17), Loke reproaches Idun that she has embraced the
slayer of her own brother:
thic queth ec allra quenna
vergjarnasta vera,
sitztu arma thina
lagdir itrthvegna
um thinn brothurbana.
Idun is a daughter of Ivalde (Forspjallsljod), and hence a sister or
half-sister of the famous smiths, Ivalde's sons. From the passage it thus
appears that one of Ivalde's sons was slain, and Loke insists that Idun
had given herself to the man who was the cause of his death.
There is not the slightest reason to doubt that in this instance, as in
so many other cases, Loke boasts of the evil deeds he has committed,
and of the successes he has had among the asynjes, according to his own
assurances. With the reproaches cast on Idun we should compare what
he affirms in regard to Freyja, in regard to Tyr's wife, in regard to
Skade and Sif, in reference to all of whom he claims that they have
secretly been his mistresses. Against Idun he could more easily and more
truthfully bring this charge, for the reason that she was at one time
wholly in his power, namely, when he stole into Thjasse's halls and
carried her away thence to Asgard (Younger Edda, i. 210-214). Under such
circumstances, that slayer of Idun's brother, whom she is charged with
embracing, can be none other than Loke himself. As a further allusion to
this, the author of the poem makes Loke speak of a circumstance connected
with the adventure--namely, that Idun, to sweeten the pleasure of the
critical hour, washed her arms shining white--a circumstance of which
none other than herself and her secret lover could know. Thus Loke is the
cause of the slaying of one of the famous artists, Ivalde's sons. The
murders of which Loke boasts in the poem are two only, that of Balder
and that of Thjasse. He says that he advised the killing of Balder, and
that he was the first and foremost in the killing of Thjasse (_fyrstr oc
ofstr_). Balder was not Idun's brother. So far as we can make out from
the mythic records extant, the Ivalde son slain must have been identical
with Thjasse, the son of Alvalde. There is no other choice.
(10) It has already been shown above that Volund and the swan-maid
who came to him in the Wolfdales were either brother and sister or
half-brother and half-sister. From what has been stated above, it follows
that Thjasse and Idun were related to each other in the same manner.
(11) Thjasse's house is called _Brunn-akr_ (Younger Edda, i. 312). In
Volundarkvida (9) Volund is called _Brunni_.
(12) Idun has the epithet _Snót_ (Younger Edda, 306), "the wise one,"
"the intelligent one." Volund's swan-maid has the epithet _Alvitr_,
"the much-knowing one," "the very intelligent one" (Volundarkvida, 1).
Volund has the epithet _Ásólfr_ (Hyndluljod; cp. No. 109). Thjasse has
the epithet _Fjallgylder_ (Younger Edda, 308), which is a paraphrase of
_Ásólfr_ (_áss = fjöll_, _olfr = gyldir_).
(13) One of Volund's brothers, namely Orvandel-Egil, had the epithet
"Wild boar" (Ibor, Ebur). One of Thjasse's brothers is called _Urnir_,
_Aurnir_. This name means "wild boar." Compare the Swedish and Norwegian
peasant word _orne_, and the Icelandic word _runi_ (a boar), in which the
letters are transposed.
(14) At least one of Alvalde's sons was a star-hero, viz., Thjasse, whose
eyes Odin and Thor fastened on the heavens (Harbardsljod, 18; Younger
Edda, i. 318, 214). At least one of Ivalde's sons was a star-hero, viz.,
Orvandel-Egil (Younger Edda, i. 276, &c.). No star-hero is mentioned
who is not called a son of Alvalde or is a son of Ivalde, and not a
single name of a star or of a group of stars can with certainty be
pointed out which does not refer to Alvalde's or Ivalde's sons. From the
Norse sources we have the names _Örvandilstá thjaza augu Lokabrenna_
and _Reid Rögnis_. Lokabrenna, the Icelandic name of Sirius, can only
refer to the _brenna_ (fire) caused by Loke when Thjasse fell into the
vaferflames kindled around Asgard. In _Reid Rögnis_, Rogner's car, Rogner
is, as shall be shown below, the epithet of a mythic person, in whom we
rediscover both Volund and Thjasse. In Old English writings the Milky
Way is called Vætlingastræt, Watlingestræt. The Watlings or Vætlings can
only be explained as a patronymic meaning Vate's sons. Vate is one of the
names of the father of Volund and his brothers (see No. 110). Another
old English name of star-group is Eburthrung, Eburthring. Here Egil's
surname Ebur, "wild boar," reappears. The name Ide, borne by a brother of
Thjasse, also seems to have designated a star-hero in England.
At least two of these figures and names are very old and of ancient Aryan
origin. I do not know the reasons why Vigfusson assumes that Orvandel is
identical with Orion, but the assumption is corroborated by mythological
facts. Orion is the most celebrated archer and hunter of Greek mythology,
just as Orvandel is that of the Teutonic. Like Orvandel-Egil, he has two
brothers of whom the one Lykos (wolf) has a Telchin name, and doubtless
was originally identical with the Telchin Lykos, who, like Volund, is a
great artist and is also endowed with powers to influence the weather.
Orion could, so it is said, walk on the sea as well as on the land.
Orvandel-Egil has skees, with which he travels on the sea as well as on
the snow-fields, whence small ships are called _Egil's andrar_, Egil's
skees (Kormak, 5). Orion wooes a daughter of Oinopion. The first part of
the word is _oinos_ (wine); and as Oinopion is the son of Bacchus, there
is no room for doubt that he originally had a place in the Aryan myth in
regard to the mead. Orvandel-Egil woos a daughter of Sumbl (Olvalde),
the king of the Finns, who in the Teutonic mythology is Oinopion's
counterpart. Orion is described as a giant, a tall and exceedingly
handsome man, and is said to be a brother of the Titans. His first wife,
the beautiful Sida, he soon lost by death; just as Orvandel lost Groa.
Sida, _Sida_ with its Dorian variation Rhoa, _Roa_, means fruit. The
name Groa refers, like Sida, Rhoa, to vegetation, growth. After Sida's
decease, Orion woos Oinopion's daughter just as Orvandel-Egil woos the
daughter of the Finnish king Sumbl after Groa's death. He has a third
erotic alliance with Eos. According to one record he is said to have
been killed because, in his love of the chase, he had said that he would
exterminate all game on earth. This statement may have its origin in
the myth preserved by the Teutons about Volund's and Orvandel-Egil's
effort to destroy all life on the earth by the aid of the powers of
frost. Hesiod says that the Pleiades (which set when Orion rises above
the horizon) save themselves from Orion in the stream of the ocean. The
above-mentioned Old English name of a constellation Eburthrung may refer
to the Pleiades, since the part _thrung_, _drying_, refers to a dense
cluster of stars. The first part of the word, Ebur, as already stated,
is a surname of Orvandel-Egil. It should be added that the points of
similarity between the Orion and Orvandel myths are of such a nature that
they exclude all idea of being borrowed one from the other. Like the most
of the Greek myths in the form in which they have been handed down to us,
the Orion myth is without any organic connection with any epic whole.
The Orvandel myth, on the other hand, dovetails itself as a part into a
mythological epic which, in grand and original outlines, represents the
struggle between gods, patriarchs, ancient artists, and frost-giants for
the control of the world.
The name Thjasse, _thjazi_, in an older and uncorrupted form _thizi_,
I regard to be most ancient like the person that bears it. According
to my opinion, Thjasse is identical with the star-hero mentioned in
Rigveda, _Tishya_, the _Tistrya_ of the Iranians, who in Rigveda (x.
64, 8) is worshipped together with an archer, who presumably was his
brother. The German middle-age poetry has preserved the name Thjasse
in the form _Desen_ (which is related to _thjazi_ as _Delven_ is to
_thialfi_). In "Dieterichs Flucht" Desen is a king, whose daughter
marries Dieterich-Hadding's father. In the Norse sources a sister of
Thjasse (Alveig-Signe, daughter of Sumbl, the king of the Finns) marries
Hadding's father, Halfdan. Common to the German and Norse traditions is,
therefore, that Hadding's father marries a near kinswoman of Thjasse.
(15) In the poem Haustlaung Thjasse's adventure is mentioned, when he
captured Loke with the magic rail. Here we get remarkable, hitherto
misunderstood, facts in regard to Thjasse's personality.
That they have been misunderstood is not owing to lack of attention or
acumen on the part of the interpreters. On the contrary, acumen has
been lavished thereon.[10] In some cases the scholars have resorted to
text-changes in order to make the contents intelligible, and this was
necessary on account of the form in which our mythology hitherto has been
presented, and that for good reasons, since important studies of another
kind, especially of accurate editions of the Teutonic mythological
texts, have claimed the time of scholars and compelled them to neglect
the study of the epic connection of the myths and of their exceedingly
rich and abundant synonymics. As a matter of course, an examination of
the synonymics and of the epic connection could not fail to shed another
light than that which could be gained without this study upon a number of
passages in the old mythological poems, and upon the paraphrases based on
the myths and occurring in the historical songs.
In Haustlaung Thjasse is called _fadir mörna_, "the father of the
swords." Without the least reason it has been doubted that a mythic
person, that is so frequently called a giant, and whose connection
with the giant world and whose giant nature are so distinctly held
forth in our mythic sources, could be an artist and a maker of swords.
Consequently the text has been changed to _fadir mornar_ or _fadir
morna_, the father of consumption or of the strength-consuming diseases,
or of the feminine thurses representing these diseases. But so far
as our mythic records give us any information, Thjasse had no other
daughter than Skade, described as a proud, bold, powerful maid, devoted
to achievements, who was elevated to the rank of an asynje, became the
wife of the god of wealth, the tender stepmother of the lord of harvests
(Skirnersmal), Frigg's _elja_, and in this capacity the progenitress
of northern rulers, who boasted their descent from her. That Thjasse
had more daughters is indeed possible, but they are not mentioned, and
it must remain a conjecture on which nothing can be built; and even if
such were the case, it must be admitted that as Skade was the foremost
and most celebrated among them, she is the first one to be thought of
when there is mention of a daughter or of daughters of Thjasse. But that
Skade should be spoken of as a _morn_, a consumption-witch, and that
Hakon Jarl should be regarded as descended from a demon of consumption,
and be celebrated in song as the scion of such a person, I do not deem
possible. The text, as we have it, tells us that Thjasse was the father
of swords (_mörnir_ = sword; see Younger Edda, i. 567; ii. 560, 620). We
must confine ourselves to this reading and remember that this is not the
only passage which we have hitherto met with where his name is put in
connection with works of a smith. Such a passage we have already met with
in _thjaza thingskil_.
(16) In the same poem, Haustlaung, Thjasse is called _hapta snytrir_,
"the one who decorated the gods," furnished them with treasures. This
epithet, too, appeared unintelligible, so long as none of the artists
of antiquity was recognised in Thjasse; hence text-changes were also
resorted to in this case in order to make sense out of the passage.