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24.

HALFDAN'S ENMITY WITH ORVANDEL AND SVIPDAG (cp. No. 33).

Saxo relates in regard t(m Gram that he carried away the royal daughter Groa, though she was already bound to another man, and that he slew her father, whereupon he got into a feud with Svipdag, an irreconcilably bitter foe, who fought against him with varying success of arias, and gave himself no rest until he had taken Gram’s life and realm. Gram left two sons, whom Svipdag treated in a very different manner. The one named Guthornius (Gud hormr who was a soii of Groa, he received into his good graces. To the other, named Hadingus, Hading, or Hadding, and who was a son of Signe, he transferred the deadly hate lie had cherished towards the father. The cause of the hatred of Svipdag against Gram, and which could not he extinguished in his blood, Saxo does not mention but this point is cleared up by a comparison with other sources. Nor does Saxo mention who the person was from whom Grain robbed Groa, but this, too, we learn in another place.

The Groa of the myth is mentioned in two other places: in Groagalder and in Gylfaginning. Both sources agree in representing her as skilled in good, healing, harm-averting songs ; both also in describing her as a tender person devoted to the members of her family. In Gylfaginning she is the loving wife who forgets every-thing in her joy that her husband, the brave archer Orvandel, has been saved by Thor from a dangerous adventure. In Groagalder she is the mother whose love to her son conquers death and speaks consoling and protecting words from the grave. Her husband is, as stated, Orvandel ; her son is Svipdag.

If we compare the statements in Saxo with those in Groagalder and Gylfaginning we get the following result

Saxo : King Sigtrygg has a daughter Groa.

Gylfaginning : Groa is married to the brave Orvandel.

Groagalder: Groa has a son Svipdag.

Saxo : Groa is robbed by Gram-Halfdan.

Saxo : Hostilities on account of the robbing of the

Hyndluljod : woman. Gram-Halfdan kills Groa’s

Skaldskapmal: father Sigtrygg.

Saxo: With Gram-Halfdan Groa has the son Gudhorm. Gram-Halfdan is separated froma Groa. He courts Signe (Almveig in Hyndluljod; Alveig in Skaldskaparmal), daughter of Sumbel, king of the Finns.

Groagalder : Groa with her son Svipdag is once more with her first husband. Groa dies. Svipdag’s father Orvandel marries a second time. Before her death Groa has told Svipdag that lie, if need requires her help, must go to her grave and wake her out of the sleep of death.

The stepmother gives Svipdag a task which he thinks surpasses his strength. He then goes to his mother’s grave. From the grave Groa sings protectiiig incantations over her son.

Saxo: Svipdag attacks Gram-Halfdan. After several conflicts he succeeds in conquering him and gives him a deadly wound. Svipdag pardons the soii Gram-Halfdan has had with Groa, but persecutes his son with Signe (Alveig).

In this connection we find the key to Svipdag’s irreconcilable conflict with Gram—Halfdan. He must revenge himself on him on his father’s and mother’s account. He must avenge his mother’s disgrace, his grandfather Sigtrygg’s death, and, as a further investi— gation shows, the murder also of his father Orvandel. We also find why he pardons Gudhorm : he is his own half-brother and Groa’s son.

Sigtrygg, Groa, Orvandel, and Svipdag have in the myth belonged to the pedigree of the Ynglings, and hence Saxo calls Sigtrygg king in Svithiod. Concerning the Ynglings, Ynglingasaga remarks that Yngve was the name of everyone who in that time was the head of the family (Yngl., p. 20). Svipdag, the favourite hero of the Teutonic mythology, is accordingly celebrated in song under the name Yngve, and also under other names to which I shall refer later, when I am to give a full account of the myth concerning him.

25.

HALFDAN’S IDENTITY WITH MANNUS IN "GERMANIA".

With Gram-Halfdan the Teutonic patriarch period ends. The human race had its golden age under Heimdal, its copper age under Skjold-Borgar, and the beginning of its iron age under Halfdan. The Skilfinga-Ynglinga race has been named after HeimdalSkelfir himself, and he has been regarded as its progenitor. His son Skjold-Borgar has been considered the founder of the Skjoldungs. With Halfdan the pedigree is divided into three through his stepson Yngve-Svipdag, the latter’s half-brother Gudhorm, and Gudhorm’s half-brother Hading or Hadding. The war between these three—a continuation of the feud beween Halfdan and Svipdag—was the subject of a cycle of songs sung throughout Teutondom, songs which continued to live, though greatly changed with the lapse of time, on the lips of Germans throughout the middle ages (see Nos. 36-43).

Like his father, Halfdan was the fruit of a double fatherhood, a (divine amid a human. Saxo was aware of this double fatherhood, and relates of his Halfdan Berggram that he, although the son of a human prince, was respected as a son of Thor, and honoured as a god among that people who longest remained heathen ; that is to say, the Swedes (Igitur apud sveones tantus haberi ri coepit, ut magni Thor filitus existimatus, divinis a populo honoribus donaretur ac publico dignus libamine censeretur). In his saga, as told by Saxo, Thor holds his protecting hand over Halfdan like a father over his son.

It is possible that both the older patriarchs originally were regarded rather as the founders and chiefs of the whole human race than of the Teutons alone. Certain it is that the appellation Teutonic patriarch belonged more particularly to the third of the series. We have a reminiscence of this in Hyndluljod, 14-16. To the question, " Whence canie the Skjoldungs, Skilfings, Andlungs, and Ylfings, and all the free—born and gentle-born ? "the song answers by pointing to "the foremost among the Skjolduugs "—Sigtrygg’s slayer Halfdan—a statement which, after the memory of the myths had faded and become confused, was magnified in the Younger Edda into the report that he was the father of eighteen sons, nine of which were the founders of the heroic families whose names were at that time rediscovered in the heathen-heroic songs then extant.

According to what we have now stated in regard to Halfdan’s genealogical position there can no longer be any doubt that he is the same patriarch as the Mannus mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, ch. 2, where it is said of the Germans : " In old songs they celebrate Tuisco, a god born of Earth (Terra; compare the goddess Terra Mater ch. 40), and his son Mannus as the source and founder of the race. Mannus is said to have had three sons, after whose names those who dwell nearest the ocean are called Ingævonians (Ingavones), those who dwell in the centre Hermionians (Hermiones, Herminones), and the rest Istævonians (Istavones)." Tacitus adds that there were other Teutonic tribes, such as the Marsians, the Gambrivians, the Svevians, and the Vandals, whose names were derived from other heroes of divine birth.

Thus Mannus. though human, amid the source and founder of the Teutonic race, is also the soii of a god. The mother of his divine father is the goddess Earth, mother Earth. In our native myths we rediscover this goddess—polyonomous like nearly all mythic beings—in Odin’s wife Frigg, also called Fjorgyn and only The Hlodyn As sons of her and Odin or (Völusp.) and Balder (Lokasenna) are definitely mentioned.

In regard to the goddess Earth (Jord), Tacitus states (ch. 40), as a characteristic trait that she is believed to take a lively interest arid active part in the affairs of men and nations (vain intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur), and lie informs us that she is especially worshipped by the Longobardians and some of their neighbours near the sea. This statement, compared with the emigration saga of the Longobardians (No. 15), confirms the theory that the goddess Jord, who, in the days of Tacitus, was celebrated in song as the mother of Mannus’ divine father, is identical with Frigg. In their emigration saga the Longobardians have great faith in Frigg, and trust in her desire and ability to intervene when the fate of a nation is to be decided by arms. Nor are they deceived in their trust in her ; she is able to bring about that Odin, without considering the consequences, gives the Longobardians a new name; and as a christening present was in order, and as the Longobardians stood arrayed against the Vandals at the moment when they received their new name, the gift could be no other than victory over their foes. Tacitus’ statement, that the Longobardians were one of the races who particularly paid worship to the goddess Jord, is found to be imitiniately connected with, and to be explained by, this tradition, which continued to be reniembered among the Longobardians long after they became converted to Christianity, down to the time when Origo Longobardorum was written.

Tacitus calls the goddess Jord Nertlius. Vigfusson (and before him J. Grimm) and others have seen in this name a feminine version of Njördr. Nor does any other explanation seem possible. The existence of such a form is not more surprising than that we have in Freyja a feniinine form of Frey, and in Fjorgyn-Frigg a feminine form of Fjörgynr. In our mythic documents neither Frigg nor Njord are of Asa race. Njord is, as we know, a Van. Frigg’s father is Fjörgynr (perhaps the sanie as Parganya in the Vedic songs), also called Annarr, Ánarr, and Ónarr, and her mother is Narve’s daughter Night. Frigg’s high position as Odin’s real and lawful wife, as the queen of the Asa world, and as mother of the chief gods Thor and Balder, presupposes her to be of the noblest birth which the myth could bestow on a being born outside of time Asa clan, and as tIme Vans conic next after the Asas in the mythology, and were united with them from the beginning of time, as hostages, by treaty, by marriage, a ncl by adoption, probability, if no other proof could be found, would favour the theory that Frigg is a goddess of the race of Vans, and that her father Fjörgyn is a clan-chief among the Vans. This view is corroborated in two ways. The cosmogony makes Earth and Sea sister and brother. The same divine mother Night (Nat), who hears the goddess Jord, also bears a son Uðr, Unnr, the ruler of the sea, also called Auðr (Rich), the personifcation of wealth. Both these names are applied among the gods to Njord alone as the god of navigation, commerce, and wealth. (In reference to wealth compare the phrase auðigr sem Njörðr as Njord.) Thus Frigg is Njord’s sister. This explains the attitude given to Frigg in the war between the Asas and Vans by Völuspa, Saxo, and the author of Ynglingasaga, where the tradition is related as history. In the form given to this tradition in Christian times amid in Saxo’s hands, it is disparaging to Frigg as Odin's wife ; but the pith of Saxo’s narrative is, that Frigg in the feud between the Asa.s and Vans did not side with Odin but with the Vans, and contributed towards making the latter lords of Asgard. When the purely heathen documents (Völusp., Vafthr., Lokas.) describe her as a tender wife and mother, Frigg’s taking part with tIme Vans against her owii husband can scarcely be explained otherwise than by the Teutonic principle, that the duties of the daughter and sister are above the wife’s, a view plainly presented in Saxo (p. 353), and illustrated by Gudrun’s conduct toward Atle.

Thus it is proved that the god who is the father of the Teutonic patriarch Mannus is himself the son of Frigg, the goddess of earth, and must, according to the mythic records at hand, be either Thor or Balder. The name given him by Tacitus, Tuisco, does not determine which of the two. Tuisco has the form of a patronymic adjective, and reappears in the Norse Tívi an old name of Odin, related to D i óV , divus, and devas, froni which all the sons of Odin arid gods of Asgard received the epithet tívar. But in the songs learned by Saxo in regard to time northern race-patriarch and his divine father, his place is occupied by Thor, not by Balder, and " "Jord’s son " is in Norse poetry an epithet particularly applied to Thor.

Mannus has three sons. So has Halfdan. While Mannus has a son Ingævo, Halfdan has a stepson Yngve, Inge (Svipdag). The sccoiid son of Mannus is named Hermio. Halfdan’s son with Groa is called Guðhormr. The second part of this name has, as Jessen has already poiiited out, nothing to do with ormr. It may be that the name should be divided Gud— hormr, and that hormr should be referred to Hermio. Mannus’ third son is Istævo. The Celtic scholar Zeuss has connected this name with that of the Gothic (more properly Vandal) heroic race Azdingi, and Grimni has again connected Azdingi with Hazdiggo (Haddingr). Halfdan’s third son is in Saxo called Hadingus. Whether the comparisons made by Zeuss and Grimm are to the point or not (see further, No. 43) makes but little difference here. It nevertheless remains as a result of the investigation that all that is related by Tacitus about the Teutonic patriarch Mannus has its counterpart in the question concerning Halfdan, and that both in the myths occupy precisely the same place as sons of a god and as founders of Teutonic tribes and royal families. The pedigrees are:

26.

THE SACRED RUNES LEARNED FROM HEIMDAL.

The mythic ancient history of the human race and of the Teutons may, in accordance with the analysis above given, be divided into the following epochs :—(l) From Ask and Embla’s creation until Heimdal’s arrival (2) from Heimdal’s arrival until his departure; (3) the age of Skjold-Borgar; (4) Halfdan’s tinie; (5) The time of Halfdan’s sons. And now we will discuss the events of the last three epochs.

In the days of Borgar the moral condition of men grows worse, and an event in nature takes place threatening at least the northern part of the Teutonic world with destruction. The myth gives the causes of both these phenomena. The moral degradation has its cause, if not wholly, yet for the greater part, in the activity among men of a female being from the giant world. Through her men become acquainted with the black ait, the evil art of sorcery, which is the opposite of the wisdom drawn from Mimir’s holy fountain, the knowledge of runes, and acquaintance with the application of nature’s secret forces for good ends (see Nos. 34, 35).

The sacred knowledge of runes, the " "fimbul—songs," the white art, was, according to the myth, originally in the possession of Mimir. Still he did not have it of himself, but got it from the subterranean fountain, which he guarded beneath the middle root of the world-tree (see No. 63) a fountain whose veins, together with tIme deepest root of the world—tree. extends to a depth which not even Odin’s thought can penetrate (Havam., 138). By self— sacrifice in his youth Odin received from Bestla’s brother (Mimir; see No. 88) a drink from the precious liquor of this fountain and nine fimbul—songs (Havam., 140 ; cp. Sigrdr., 14), which were the basis of time divine magic, of the application of the power of the word and of the rune over spiritual and natural forces, in prayer, in sacrifices and in other religious acts, in investigations, in the practical affairs of life, in peace amid in war (Havam., 144 ff ; Sigrdr., 6 ff). The character amid purpose of these songs are clear from the fact that at the head is placed " help’s fimbul—song," which is able to allay sorrow aiid cure diseases (Havam., 146).

In the hands of Odin they are a means for the protection of the power of time Asa—gods, and enable them to assist their worshippers in danger and distress. To these beloing the fimbul-song of the runes of victory ; and it is of no little interest that we, in Havamál, 156, find w hat Tacitus tells about the barditus of the Germans, the shield—song with which they went to meet their foes—a song which Ammianus Paulus himself has heard, and of which he gives a vivid description. When time Teutonic forces advanced to battle the warriors raised their shields up to a level with time upper lip, so that time round of time shield formed a soit of sounding-board for their song. This began in a low voice and preserved its subdued colour, but the sound gradually increased, and at a distance it resembled the roar ot the breakers of the sea. Tacitus says that the Teutons predicted time result of the battle from the impression the song as a whole made upon themselves it might sound in their ears in such a manner that they thereby became more terrible to their enemies, or in such a manner that they were overcome by despair. The above-mentioned strophe of Havamál gives us an explanation of this the warriors were roused to confidence if they, in the harmony of time subdued song increasing in volume, seemed to perceive Valfather’s voice blended with their own. The strophe makes Odin say Ef cc seed til orrostu leiÞa langvini, undir randir cc gel, en þeir meþ ríki heilir hildar til, heilir hildi frá—" If I am to lead those to battle whom I have long held in friendship, then I sing under their shields. With success they go to the conflict, and successfully they go out of it." Völuspa also refers to time shield-son, in 47, where it makes the storm-giant, Hrymr, advancing against the gods, "lift his shield before him" (hefiz lind fyrir) an expression which certainly has another significance than that of unnecessarily pointing out that lie has a shield for protection. Time runes of victory were able to arrest weapons in their flight and to make those whom Odin loved proof against sword-edge and safe against ambush (Havam., 148, 150). Certain kinds of runes were regarded as producing victory and were carved on the hilt and on the blade of the sword, and while they were carved Tyr’s name was twice named (Sigrdr., 6).

Another class of runes (brimrúnar, Sigrdr., 10; Havam., 150) controlled the elements, purified the air from evil beings (Havam., 155), gave power over wind and waves for good purposes— as, for instance, when sailors in distress were to be rescued—or power over time flames when they tlmreatened to destroy human dwellings (Havam., 152). A third kind of runes (málrúnar) gave speech to the mute and speechless, even to those whose lips were sealed in death (see No. 70). A fourth kind of runes could free the limbs from bonds (Havam., 149). A fifth kind of runes protected against witchcraft (Havam., 151). A sixth kind of runes (ölránar) takes time strength froni the love -potion prepared by another imman’s wife, amid from every treachery mingled therein (Sigrdr., 7, 8). A seventh kind (bjargrúnar and limrúnar) helps in childbirth and heals wounds. Aim eighth kind gives wisdom and knowledge (hugrúnar, Sigrdr., 13 ; cp. Havam., 159). A ninth kind extinguishes enmity aimd hate, and produces friendship and love (Havam., 153, 161). Of great value, and a great honour to kings and chiefs, was the possession of healing runes and healing hands ; and that certain noble-born families inherited the power of these runes was a belief which has been handed down even to our time. There is a distinct consciousness that the runes of this kind were a gift of the blithe gods. In a strophe, which sounds as if it were taken from an ancient hymn, the gods are beseechied for runes of wisdom arid healing:" Hail to the gods Hail to the goddesses Hail to the bounteous Earth (the goddess Jord). Words and wisdom give unto us, and healing hands while we live ." (Sigrdr., 4).

In ancient times arrangements were made for spreading the knowledge of the good runes among all kinds of beings. Odin taught them to his own clan ; Dáinn taught them to the Elves Dvalinn among the dwarfs ; Ásvinr (see No. 88) among the giants (Havam., 143). Even the last-named became participators in the good gift, which, mixed with sacred mead, was sent far and wide, and it has since been among the Asas, among the Elves, among the wise Vans, and among the children of men (Sigrdr., 18). The above-named Dvalinn, who taught the runes to his clan of ancient artists, is the father of daughters, who, together with discs of Asa and Vana birth, are in possession of bjargrúnar, and employ them in the service of man (Fafnism., 13).

To men the beneficent runes came through the same god who as a child came with the sheaf of grain and the tools to Scandia. Hence the belief current among the Franks and Saxons that the alphabet of the Teutons, like the Teutons themselves, was of northern origin. Rigsthula expressly presents Heimdal as teaching runes to the people whom he blessed by his arrival in Midgard. The noble - born are particularly his pupils in runic lore. Of Heimdal’s grandson, the son of Jarl Borgar, named Kon-Halfdan, it is said:

The fundaniental character of this rune-lore beams distinctly the stamp of nobility. The runes of eternity united with those of the earthly life can scarcely have any other reference than to the heathen doctrines concerning religion and morality. These were looked upon as being for all time, and of equal importance to the life hereafter. Together with physical runes with magic power— that is, runes that gave their possessors power over the hostile forces of nature—we find runes intended to serve the cause of sympathiy and mercy.

27.

SORCERY THE REVERSE OE THE SACRED RUNES. GULLVEIG-HEIðR, THE SOURCE OF SORCERY. THE MORAL DETERIORATION OF THE ORIGINAL MAN.

But already in the beginning of time evil powers appear for the purpose of opposing and ruining the good influences from the world of gods upon mankind. Just as Heimdal, "the fast traveller," proceeds from house to house, forming new ties in society and giving instruction in what is good and useful, thus we soon find a messenger of evil wandering about between the houses in Midgard, practising the black art and stimulating the worst passions of the human soul. The messenger comes from the powers of frost, the enemies of creation. It is a giantess, the daughter of the giant Hrimnir (Hyndlulj., 32), known aniong the gods as Gulveig and by other names (see Nos. 34, 35), but on her wanderings on earth called Heir. "Heid they called her (Gulveig) when she came to the children of men, the crafty, prophesying vala, who practised sorcery (vitti ganda), practised the evil art, caused by witchcraft misfortunes, sickness, and death (leikin, see No. 67), and was always sought by bad women." Thus Völuspa describes her. The important position Heid occupies in regard to the corruption of ancient man, and the consequences of her appear-ance for the gods for man, amid for nature (see below), have led Völuspa’s author, in spite of his general poverty of words, to describe her with a certain fulness, pointing out among other things that she was the cause of the first war in the world. That the time of her appearance was during the life of Borgar and his son shall be demonstrated below.

In connection with this moral corruption, and caused by the same powers hostile to the world, there occur in this epoch such disturbances in nature that the original home of man and culture—nay, all Midgard—is threatened with destruction on account of long, terrible winters. A series of connected myths tell of this. Ancient artists—forces at work in the growth of nature—personifications of the same kind as Rigveda’s Ribhus, that had before worked in harmony with the gods, become, through the influence of Loki, foes of Asgard, their work becoming as harniful as it before was beneficent, and seek to destroy what Odin had created (see Nos. 111 and 112). Idun, with her life-renewing apples, is carried by Thjasse away from Asgard to the northernmost wilderness of the world, and is there concealed. Freyja, the goddess of fertility, is robbed and falls into the power of giants. Frey, the god of harvests, falls sick. The giant king Snow and his kinsmen þorri (Black Frost), Jökull (the Glacier), &c., extend their sceptres over Scandia.

Already during Heimdal’s reign, after his protégé Borgar had grown up, something happens which forebodes these terrible times, but still has a happy issue.

28A.

HEIMDAL AND THE SUN-DIS (Dis = goddess).

In Saxo’s time there was still extant a myth telling bow Heimdal, as the ruler of the earliest generation, got himself a wife. The myth is found related as history in Historia Danica, pp. 335-337. Changed into a song of chivalry in middle age style, we find it on German soil in the poem concerning king Ruther.

Saxo relates that a certain king Alf undertook a perilous journey of courtship, and was accompanied by Borgar. Alf is the more noble of the two; Borgar attends him. This already points to the fact that the mythic figure which Saxo has changed into a historical king must be Heimdal, Borgar’s co-father, his ruler and fosterer, otherwise Borgar himself would be the chief person in his country, and could not be regarded as subject to anyone else. Alf's identity with Heimdal is corroborated by "King Ruther," and to a degree also by the description Saxo makes of his appearance, a description based on a definite mythic prototype. Alf, says Saxo, had a fine exterior, and over his hair, though he was young, a so remarkably white splendour was diffused that rays of light seemed to issue from his silvery locks (cujus etiam insignem candore cæsariem tantus comæ decor asperierat, ut argenteo crine nitere putaretur). The Heimdal of the myth is a god of light, and is described by the colour applied to pure silver in the old Norse literature to distinguish it from that which is alloyed; he is hvíti áss (Gylfag., 27) and hvítastr ása (Thrymskvida, 5); his teeth glitter like gold, and so does his horse. We should expect that the maid whom Alf, if he is Heimdal, desires to possess belongs like himself to the divinities of light. Saxo also says that her beauty could make one blind if she was seen without her veil, and her name Alfhild belongs, like Alfsol, Hild, Alfhild Solglands, Svanhild Guldfjæder, to that class of names by which the sun-dises, mother and daughter, were transferred from mythology to history. She is watched by two dragons. Suitors who approach her in vain get their heads chopped off and set up on poles (thus also in " King Ruther "). Alf conquers the guarding dragons; but at the advice of her mother Alfhild takes flight, puts on a man’s clothes and armour, and becomes a female warrior, fighting at the head of other Amazons. Alf and Borgar search for and find the troop of Amazons amid ice and snow. It is conquered and flies to "Finnia ". Alf and Borgar pursue them thither. There is a new conflict. Borgar strikes the helmet from Alfhild’s head. She has to confess herself conquered, and becomes AIf’s wife.

In interpreting the mythic contents of this story we must remember that the lad who came with the sheaf of grain to Scandia needed the help of the sun for the seed which he brought with him to sprout, before it could give harvests to the inhabitants. But the saga also indicates that the sun-dis had veiled herself, and made herself as far as possible unapproachable, and that when Heimdal had forced himself into her presence she fled to northern ice-enveloped regions, where the god and his foster-son, sword in hand, had to fetch her, whereupon a happy marriage between him and the sun-dis secures good weather and rich harvests to the land over which he rules. At the first glance it might seem as if this myth had left no trace in our Icelandic records. This is, however, not the case. Its fundamental idea, that the sun at one time in the earliest ages went astray from southern regions to the farthest north and desired to remain there, but that it was brought back by the might of the gods who created the world, and through them received, in the same manner as Day and Night, its course defined and regularly established, we find in the Völuspa strophe, examined with so great acumen by Julius Hoffory, which speaks of a bewilderment of this kind on the part of the sun, occurring before it yet "knew its proper sphere," and in the following strophe, which tells how the all-holy gods thereupon held solemn council and so ordained the activity of these beings, that time can be divided and years be recorded by their course. Nor is the marriage into which the sun-dis entered forgotten. Skaldskaparmal quotes a strophe from Skule Thorsteinson where Sol * is called Glenr’s wife. That he whom the skald characterises by this epithet is a god is a matter of course. Glenr signifies "the shining one," and this epithet was badly chosen if it did not refer to "the most shining of the Asas," hvítastr ása—that is, Heimdal.

The fundamental traits of "King Ruther" resemble Saxo’s story. There, too, it is a king who undertakes a perilous journey of courtship and must fight several battles to win the wondrous fair maiden whose previous suitors had had to pay for their eagerness by having their heads chopped off and fastened on poles. The king is accompanied by Berter, identical with Berchtung-Borgar, but here, as always in the German story, described as the patriarch and adviser. A giant, Vidolt—Saxo’s Vitolphus, Hyndluljod’s Viðlfr—accompanies Ruther and Berter on the journey; and when Vitolphus in Saxo is mentioned under circumstances which show that he accompanied Borgar on a warlike expedition, and thereupon saved his son Halfdan’s life, there is no room for doubt that Saxo’s saga and "King Ruther" originally flowed from the same mythic source. It can also be demonstrated that the very name Ruther is one of those epithets which belong to Heimdal. The Norse Hrútr is, according to the Younger Edda (i. 588, 589), a synonym of

* Sol is feminine in the Teutonic tongues.—TR.

Heimdali, and Heimdali is another form of Heimdall (Isl., i. 231). As Hrútr means a ram, and as Heimdali is an epithet of a ram (see Younger Edda, i. 589), light is thrown upon the bold metaphors, according to which "head," "Heimdal’s head," and "Heimdal’s sword" are synonyms (Younger Edda, i. 100, 264; ii. 499). The ram’s head carries and is the ram’s sword. Of the age of this animal symbol we give an account in No. 82. There is reason for believing that Heimdal’s helmet has been conceived as decorated with ram’s horns.* A strophe quoted in the Younger Edda (i. 608) mentions Heimdal’s helmet, and calls the sword the fylir of Heimdal’s helmet, an ambiguous expression, which may be interpreted as that which fills Heimdal’s helmet; that is to say, Heimdal’s head, but also as that which has its place on the helmet. Compare the expression fyllr hilmis stóls as a metaphor for the power of the ruler.

28B.

LOKI CAUSES ENMITY BETWEEN THE GODS AND THE ORIGINAL ARTISTS (THE CREATORS OF ALL THINGS GROWING). THE CONSEQUENCE IS THE FIMBUL-WINTER AND EMIGRATIONS.

The danger averted by Heimdal when he secured the sun-dis with bonds of love begins in the time of Borgar. The corruption of nature and of man go hand in hand. Borgar has to contend with robbers (pugiles and piratæ), and among them the prototype of pirates — that terrible character, remembered also in Icelandic poetry, called Roði (Saxo, Hist., 23, 354). The moderate laws given by Heimdal had to be made more severe by Borgar (Hist., 24, 25).

While the moral condition in Midgard grows worse, Loki carries out in Asgard a cunningly-conceived plan, which seems to be to the advantage of the gods, but is intended to bring about the ruin of both the gods and man. His purpose is to cause enmity

* That some one of the gods has worn a helmet with such a crown can he seen on one of the golden horns found near Gallehuus. There twice occurs a being wearing a helmet furnished with long, curved, sharp pointed horns. Near him a ram is drawn, and in his hand he has something resembling a staff which ends in a circle, and possibly is intended to represent Heimdal’s horn. between the original artists themselves and between them and the gods.

Among these artists the sons of Ivalde constitute a separate group. Originally they enjoyed the best relations to the gods, and gave them the best products of their wonderful art, for ornament and for use. Odin’s spear Gungnir, the golden locks on Sif’s head, and Frey’s celebrated ship Skidbladner, which could hold all the warriors of Asgard and always had favourable wind, but which also could be folded as a napkin and be carried in one’s pocket (Gylfaginning), had all come from the workshop of these artists.

Another group of original artists were Sindre and his kinsmen, who dwelt on Nida’s plains in the happy domain of the lower world (Völusp., Nos. 93, 94). According to the account given in Gylfagiuning, ch. 37, Loki meets Sindre’s brother Brok, and wagers his head that Sindre cannot make treasures as good as the above-named gifts from Ivalde’s sons to the Asas. Sindre then made in his smithy the golden boar for Frey, the ring Draupner for Odin, from which eight gold rings of equal weight drop every ninth night, and the incomparable hammer Mjolner for Thor. When the treasures were finished, Loki cunningly gets the gods to assemble for the purpose of deciding whether or not he has forfeited his head. The gods cannot, of course, decide this without at the same time passing judgment on the gifts of Sindre and those of Ivalde’s sons, and showing that one group of artists is inferior to the other. And this is done. Sindre’s treasures are preferred, and thus the sons of Ivalde are declared to be inferior in comparison. But at the same time Sindre fails, through the decision of the gods, to get the prize agreed on. Both groups of artists are offended by the decision.

Gylfaginning does not inform us whether the sons of Ivalde accepted the decision with satisfaction or anger, or whether any noteworthy consequences followed or not. An entirely similar judgment is mentioned in Rigveda (see No. 111). The judgmacnt there has the most important consequences: hatred toward the artists who were victorious, and toward the gods who were the judges, takes possession of the ancient artist who was defeated, and nature is afflicted with great suffering. That the Teutonic mythology has described similar results of the decision shall be demonstrated in this work.

Just as in the names Alveig and Almveig, Bil-röst and Bif-röst, Arinbjörn and Grjótbjörn, so also in the name Ivaldi or Ivaldr, the latter part of the word forms the permanent part, corresponding to the Old English Valdere, the German Walther, the Latinised Waltharius.* The former part of the word may change without any change as to the person indicated: Ivaldi, Allvaldi, Ölvaldi, Auðvaldi, may be names of one and the same person. Of these variations Ivaldi and Allvaldi are in their sense most closely related, for the prefixed Í (Ið) and All may interchange in the language without the least change in meaning. Compare all-líkr, ílikr, and idlikr; all-lítill and ilitill; all-nóg, ígnog, and idgnog. On the other hand, the prefixes in Ölvaldi and Auðvaldi produce different meanings of the compound word. But the records give most satisfactory evidence that Olvaldi and Auðvaldi nevertheless are the same person as Allvaldi (Ivaldi). Thjasse’s father is called in Harbardsljod (19) Allvaldi; in the Younger Edda (i. 214) Ölvaldi and Auðvaldi. He has three sons, Ide, Gang, also called Urner (the Grotte-song), and the just-named Thjasse, who are the famous ancient artists, "the sons of Ivalde" (Ivalda synir). We here point this out in passing. Complete statement and proof of this fact, so important from a mythological standpoint, will be given in Nos. 113, 114, 115.

Nor is it long before it becomes apparent what the consequences are of the decision pronounced by the Asas on Loki’s advice upon the treasures presented to the gods. The sons of

* Elsewhere it shall be shown that the heroes mentioned in the middle age poetry under the names Valdere, Walther, Waitharius manufortis, and Valthere of Vaskasten are all variations of the name of the same mythic type changed into a human hero, and the same, too, as Ivalde of the Norse documents (see No. 123).

Ivalde regarded it as a mortal offence, born of the ingratitude of the gods. Loki, the originator of the scheme, is caught in the snares laid by Thjasse in a manner fully described in Thjodolf’s poem "Haustlaung," and to regain his liberty he is obliged to assist him (Thjasse) in carrying Idun away from Asgard. Idun, who possesses "the Asas’ remedy against old age," and keeps the apples which symbolise the ever - renewing and rejuvenating force of nature, is carried away by Thjasse to a part of the world inaccessible to the gods. The gods grow old, and winter extends its power more and more beyond the limits prescribed for it in creation. Thjasse, who before was the friend of the gods, is now their irreconcilable foe. He who was the promoter of growth and the benefactor of nature—for Sif’s golden locks, and Skidbladner, belonging to the god of fertility, doubtless are symbols thereof—is changed into "the mightiest foe of earth," dolg ballastan vallar (Haustl., 6), and has wholly assumed the nature of a giant.

At the same tinie, with the approach of the great winter, a terrible earthquake takes place, the effects of which are felt even in heaven. The myth in regard to this is explained in No. 81. In this explanation the reader will find that the great earthquake in primeval time is caused by Thjasse’s kinswomen on his mother’s side (the Grotte-song)—that is, by the giantesses Fenja and Menja, who turned the enormous world-mill, built on the foundations of the lower world, and working in the depths of the sea, the prototype of the mill of the Grotte-song composed in Christian times; that the world-mill has a möndull, the mill-handle, which sweeps the uttermost rim of the earth, with which handle not only the mill-stone but also the starry heavens are made to whirl round; and that when the mill was put in so violent a motion by the angry giantesses that it got out of order, then the starry constellations were also disturbed. The ancient terrible winter and the inclination of the axis of heaven have in the myth been connected, and these again with the close of the golden age. The mill had lip to this time ground gold, happiness, peace, and good-will among men; henceforth it grinds salt amid dust.

The winter must of course first of all affect those people who inhabited the extensive Svithiod north of the original country and over which another kinsman of Heimdal, the first of the race of Skilfings or Ynglings, ruled. This kinsman of Heimdal has an important part in the mythology, and thereof we shall give an account in Nos. 89, 91, 110, 113-115, and 123. It is there found that he is the same as Ivalde, who, with a giantess, begot the illegitimate children Ide, Urner, and Thjasse. Already before his sons he became the foe of the gods, and from Svithiod now proceeds, in connection with the spreading of the fimbul-winter, a migration southward, the work at the same time of the Skilfings and the primeval artists. The list of dwarfs in Völuspa has preserved the record of this in the strophe about the artist migration from the rocks of the hall (Salar steinar) and from Svarin’s mound situated in the north (the Völuspa strophe quoted in the Younger Edda; cp. Saxo., Hist., 32, 33, and Helg. Hund., i. 31, ii. to str. 14). The attack is directed against aurvanga sjöt, the land of the clayey plains, and the assailants do not stop before they reach Jöruxalla, the Jara plains, which name is still applied to the south coast of Scandinavia (see No. 32). In the pedigree of these emigrants— þeir er sóttu frá Salar steina (or Svarins haugi) aurvanga sjöt til Jöruvalla— occur the names Álfr and Yngvi, who have Skilfing names; Fjalarr, who is Ivalde’s ally and Odin’s enemy (see No. 89); Finnr, which is one of the several names of Ivalde himself (see No. 123); Frosti, who symbolises cold; Skirfir, a name which points to the Skilfings; and Virfir, whom Saxo (Hist. Dan., 178, 179) speaks of as Huyrvillus, and the Icelandic records as Virvill amid Vifill (Fornalders. ii. 8; Younger Edda, i. 548). In Fornalders. Vifill is an emigration leader who married to Loge’s daughter Eymyrja (a metaphor for fire—Younger Edda, ii. 570), betakes himself from the far North and takes possession of an island on the Swedish coast. That this island is Oland is clear from Saxo, 178, where Huyrvillus is called Holandiæ princeps. At the same time a brother-in-law of Virfir takes possession of Bornholm, and Gotland is colonised by Thjelvar (Thjálfi of the myth), who is the son of Thjasse’s brother (see Nos. 113, 114, 115). Virfir is allied with the sons of Finnr (Fyn— Saxo, Hist., 178). The saga concerning the emigration of the Longobardians is also connected with the myth about Thjasse and his kinsmen (see Nos. 112-115).

From all this it appears that a series of emigration and colonisation tales have their origin in the myth concerning the fimbul-winter caused by Thjasse and concerning the therewith connected attack by the Skilfings and Thjasse’s kinsmen on South Scandinavia, that is, on the clayey plains near Jaravall, where the second son of Heimdal, Skjold-Borgar, rules. It is the remembrance of this migration from north to south which forms the basis of all the Teutonic middle-age migration sagas. The migration saga of the Goths, as Jordanes heard it, makes them emigrate from Scandinavia under the leadership of Berig. (Ex hac igitur Scandza insula quasi officina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum cumn rege suo Berig Gothi quondam memorantur egressi—De Goth. Orig., c. 4. Meminisse debes, me de Scndzæ insulæ gremnio Gothos dixisse egressos cum Berich suo rege—c. 17.) The name Berig, also written Bench and Berigo, is the same as the German Berker, Berchtung, and indicates the same person as the Norse Borgarr. With Berig is connected the race of the Amalians; with Borgar the memory of Hamal (Amala), who is the foster-brother of Borgar’s son (cp. No. 28 with Helge Hund., ii.). Thus the emigration of the Goths is in the myth a result of the fate experienced by Borgar and his people in their original country. And as the Swedes constituted the northernmost Teutonic branch, they were the ones who, on the approach of the fimbul-winter, were the first that were compelled to surrender their abodes and secure more southern habitations. This also appears from saga fragments which have been preserved; and here, but not in the circumstances themselves, lies the explanation of the statements, according to which the Swedes forced Scandinavian tribes dwelling farther south to emigrate. Jordanes (c. 3) claims that the Herulians were driven from their abode in Scandza by the Svithidians, and that the Danes are of Svithidian origin—in other words, that an older Teutonic population in Denmark was driven south, and that Denmark was repeopled by emigrants from Sweden. And in the Norse sagas themselves, the centre of gravity, as we have seen, is continually being moved farther to the south. Heimdal, under the name Scef-Skelfir, comes to the original inhabitants in Scania. Borgar, his son, becomes a ruler there, but founds, under the name Skjold, the royal dynasty of the Skjoldungs in Denmark. With Scef and Skjold the Wessex royal family of Saxon origin is in turn connected,, and thus the royal dynasty of the Goths is again connected with the Skjold who emigrated from Scandza, and who is identical with Borgar. And finally there existed in Saxo’s time mythic traditions or songs which related that all the present Germany came under the power of the Teutons who emigrated with Borgar; that, in other words, the emigration from the North carried with it the hegemony of Teutonic tribes over other tribes which before them inhabited Germany. Saxo says of Skjold-Borgar that omnem Alamannorum gentem tributaria ditione perdomuit; that is, "he made the whole race of Alamanni tributary ". The name Alamanni is in this case not to be taken in an ethnographical but in a geographical sense. It means the people who were rulers in Germany before the immigration of Teutons from the North.

From this we see that migration traditions remembered by Teutons beneath Italian and Icelandic skies, on the islands of Great Britain and on the German continent, in spite of their wide diffusion and their separation in time, point to a single root: to the myth concerning the primeval artists and their conflict with the gods; to the robbing of Idun and the fimbul-winter which was the result.

The myth miiakes the gods themselves to be seized by terror at the fate of the world, amid Mimir makes arrangements to save all that is best and purest on earth for an expected regeneration of the world. At the very beginning of the fimbul-winter Mimner opens in his subterranean grove of immortality an asylum, closed against all physical and spiritual evil, for the two children of men, Lif and Lifthrasir (Vafthr., 45), who are to be the parents of a new race of men (see Nos. 52, 53). The war begun in Borgar’s time for the possession of the ancient country continues under his son Halfdan, who reconquers it for a time, invades Svithiod, and repels Thjasse and his kinsmen (see Nos. 32, 33).

29.

EVIDENCE THAT HALFDAN IS IDENTICAL WITH HELGE HUNDINGSBANE.

The main outlines of Halfdan’s saga reappear related as history, and more or less blended with foreign elements, in Saxo’s accounts of the kings Gram, Halfdan Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson (see No. 23). Contributions to the saga are found in Hyndluljod (str. 14, 15, 16) and in Skaldskaparmal (Younger Edda, i. 516 if.), in what they tell about Halfdan Skjoldung and Halfdan the Old. The juvenile adventures of the hero have, with some modifications, furnished the materials for both the songs about Helge Hundingsbane, with which Saxo’s story of Helgo Hundingicida (Hist., 80-110) and Volsungasaga’s about Helge Sigmundson are to be compared. The Grotte-song also (str. 22) identifies Helge Hundingsbane with Halfdan.

For the history of the origin of the existing heroic poems from mythic sources, of their relation to these and to each other, it is important to get the original identity of the hero-myth, concerning Halfdan and the heroic poems concerning Helge Hundingsbane, fixed on a firm foundation. The following parallels suffice to show that this Helge is a later time’s reproduction of the mythic Halfdan:

A glance at these parallels is sufficient to remove every doubt that the hero in the songs concerning Helge Hundingsbane is originally the same mythic person as is celebrated in the song or songs from which Saxo gathered his materials concerning the kings, Gram Skjoldson, Halfdan Berggram, and Halfdan Borgarson. It is the ancient myth in regard to Halfdan, the son of Skjold-Borgar, which myth, after the introduction of Christianity in Scandinavia, is divided into two branches, of which the one continues to be the saga of this patriarch, while the other utilises the history of his youth and tranforms it into a new saga, that of Helge Hundingsbane. In Saxo’s time, and long before him, this division into two branches had already taken place. How this younger branch, Helge Hundingsbane’s saga, was afterwards partly appropriated by the all-absorbing Sigurdsaga and became connected with it in an external and purely genealogical manner, and partly did itself appropriate (as in Saxo) the old Danish local tradition about Rolf, the illegitimate son of Halfdan Skjoldung, and, in fact, foreign to his pedigree; how it got mixed with the saga about an evil Frode and his stepsons, a saga with which it formerly had no connection ;—all these are questions which I shall discuss fully in a second part of this work, and in a separate treatise on the heroic sagas. For the present, my task is to show what influence this knowledge of Halfdan and Helge Hundingsbane’s identity has upon the interpretation of the myth concerning the antiquity of the Teutons.

30.

HALFDAN’S BIRTH AND THE END OF THE AGE OF PEACE. THE FAMILY NAMES YLFING, HILDING, BUDLUNG.

The first strophes of the first song of Helge Hundingsbane distinguish themselves in tone and character and broad treatment from the continuation of the song, and have clearly belonged to a genuine old mythic poem about Halfdan, and without much change the compiler of the Helge Hunbingsbane song has incorporated them into his poem. They describe Halfdan’s (" Helge Hundingsbane’s ") birth. The real niythic names of his parents, Borgar and Drott, have been retained side by side with the names given by the compiler, Sigmund and Borghild.

*Urd, the chief goddess of fate. See the treatise "Mythen cm Underjorden ".

Halfdan’s (" Helge Hundingsbane’s ") birth occurs, according to the contents of these strophes, when two epochs meet. His arrival announces the close of the peaceful epoch and the beginning of an age of strife, which ever since has reigned in the world. His significance in this respect is distinctly manifest in the poem. The raven, to whom the battle-field will soon be as a well-spread table, is yet suffering from hunger (andvanr átu) but from the high tree in which it sits, it has on the day after the birth of the child, presumably through the window, seen the newcomer, and discovered that he possessed "the sharp eyes of the Hildings," and with prophetic vision it has already seen him clad in coat of mail. It proclaims its discovery to another raven in the same tree, and foretells that theirs and the age of the wolves has come: "We shall thrive ".

The parents of the child heard and understood what the raven said. Among the runes which Heimdal, Borgar’s father, taught him, and which the son of the latter in time learned, are the knowledge of bird-speech (Konr ungr klök nam fugla—Rigsthula, 43, 44). The raven’s appearance in the song of Helge Hundings

*‘Dayling = bright son of day or light.

bane is to be compared with its relative the crow in Rigsthula; the one foretells that the new-born one’s path of life lies over battlefields, the other urges the grown man to turn away from his peaceful amusements. Important in regard to a correct understanding of the song and characteristic of the original relation of the strophes quoted to the myth concerning primeval time, is the circumstance that Halfdan’s (" Helge Hundingsbane’s ") parents are not pleased with the prophecies of the raven; on the contrary they are filled with alarm. Former interpreters have been surprised at this. It has seemed to them that the prophecy of the lad’s future heroic and blood-stained career ought, in harmony with the general spirit pervading the old Norse literature, to have awakened the parents’ joy and pride. But the matter is explained by the mythic connection which makes Borgar’s life constitute the transition period from a happy and peaceful golden age to an age of warfare. With all their love of strife and admiration for warlike deeds, the Teutons still were human, and shared with all other people the opinion that peace and harmony is something better and more desirable than war and bloodshed. Like their Aryan kinsmen, they dreamed of primeval Saturnia regna, and looked forward to a regeneration which is to restore the reign of peace. Borgar, in the myth, established the community, was the legislator and judge. He was the hero of peaceful deeds, who did not care to employ weapons except against wild beasts and robbers. But the myth had also equipped him with courage and strength, the necessary qualities for inspiring respect and interest, and had given him abundant opportunity for exhibiting these qualities in the promotion of culture and the maintenance of the sacredness of the law. Borgar was the Hercules of the northern myth, who fought with the gigantic beasts and robbers of the olden time. Saxo (Hist., 23) has preserved the traditions which tell how he at one time fought breast to breast with a giant bear, conquering him and bringing him fettered into his own camp.

As is well known, the family names Ylfings, Hildings, Budlungs, &c., have in the poems of the Christian skalds lost their specific application to certain families, and are applied to royal and princely warriors in general. This is in perfect analogy with the Christian Icelandic poetry, according to which it is proper to take the name of any viking, giant, or dwarf, and apply it to any special viking, giant, or drawf, a poetic principle which scholars even of our time claim can also be applied in the interpretation of the heathen poems. In regard to the old Norse poets this method is, however, as impossible as it would be in Greek poetry to call Odysseus a Peleid, or Achilleus a Laertiatid, or Prometheus Hephæstos, or Hephæstos Dædalos. The poems concerning Helge Hundingsbane are compiled in Christian times from old songs about Borgar’s son Halfdan, and we find that the patronymic appellations Ylfing, Hilding, Budlung, and Lofdung are copiously strewn on "Helge Hundingsbane". But, so far as the above-quoted strophes are concerned, it can be shown that the appellations Ylfing, Hilding, and Budlung are in fact old usage and have a mythic foundation. The German poem "Wolfdieterich und Sabin" calls Berchtung (Borgar) Potelung—that is, Budlung the poem "Wolfdieterich" makes Berchtung the progenitor of the Hildings, and adds: "From the same race the Ylfings have come to us "—von dem selbe geslehte sint uns die wilfinge kumen (v. 223).

Saxo mentions the Hilding Hildeger as Halfdan’s half-brother, and the tradition on which the saga of Asmund Kæmpebane is based has done the same (compare No. 43). The agreement in this point between German, Danish, and Icelandic statements points to an older source common to them all, and furnishes an additional proof that the German Berchtung occupied in the mythic genealogies precisely the same place as the Norse Borgar.

That Thor is one of Halfdan’s fathers, just as Heimdal is one of Borgar’s, has already been pointed out above (see No. 25). To a divine common fatherhood point the words: "Drott, it is said, saw in him (the lad just born) a dayling (son of a god of light), a son divine ". Who the divine partner-father is is indicated by the fact that a storm has broken out the night when Drott’s son is born. There is a thunder-strife vig þrimo, the eagles screech, and holy waters fall from the heavenly mountains (from the clouds). The god of thunder is present, and casts his shadow over the house where the child is born.

31.

HALFDAN’S CHARACTER. THE WEAPON-MYTH.

The myths and heroic poems are not wanting in ideal heroes, who are models of goodness of heart, justice, and the most sensitive nobleness. Such are, for example, the Asa-god Balder, his counterpart among heroes, Helge Hjorvardson, Beowulf, and, to a certain degree also, Sigurd Fafnesbane. Halfdan did not belong to this group. His part in the myth is to be the personal representative of the strife-age that came with him, of an age when the inhabitants of the earth are visited by the great winter and by dire mimisfortunes, when the demoralisation of the world has begun along with disturbances in nature, and when the words already are applicable, " hart er i heimi" (hard is the world). Halfdan is guilty of the abduction of a woman—the old custom of taking a maid from her father by violence or cunning is illustrated in his saga. It follows, however, that the myth at the same time embellished him with qualities which made him a worthy Teutonic patriarch, and attractive to the hearers of the songs concerning him. These qualities are, besides the necessary strength and courage, the above-mentioned knowledge of runes, wherein he even surpasses his father (Rigsth.), great skaldic gifts (Saxo, Hist., 325), a liberality which makes him love to strew gold about him (Helge Hund., i 9), and an extraordinary, fascinating physical beauty—which is emphasised by Saxo (Hist., 30), and which is also evident from the fact that the Teutonic myth makes him, as the Greek myth makes Achilleus, on one occasion don a woman’s attire, and resemble a valkyrie in this guise (Helge Hund., ii.). No doubt the myth also described him as the model of a faithful foster-brother in his relations to the silent Hamal, who externally was so like him that the one could easily be taken for the other (cp. Helge Hund., ii. 1, 6). In all cases it is certain that the myth made the foster-brotherhood between Halfdan and Hamal the basis of the unfailing fidelity with which Hamal’s descendants, the Amalians, cling to the son of Halfdan’s favourite Hadding, and support his cause even amid the most difficult circumstances (see Nos. 42, 43). The abduction of a woman by Halfdan is founded in the physical interpretation of the myth, and can thus be justified. The wife he takes by force is the goddess of vegetation, Groa, and he does it because her husband Orvandel has made a compact with the powers of frost (see Nos. 33, 38, 108, 109).

There are indications that our ancestors believed the sword to be a later invention than the other kinds of weapons, and that it was from the beginning under a curse. The first and most important of all sword-smiths was, according to the myth, Thjasse,* who accordingly is called fadir mörna, the father of the swords (Haustlaung, Younger Edda, 306). The best sword made by him is intended to make way for the destruction of the gods (see Nos. 33, 98, 101, 103). After various fortunes it comes into the possession of Frey, but is of no service to Asgard. It is given to the parents of the giantess Gerd, and in Ragnarok it causes the death of Frey.

Halfdan had two swords, which his mother’s father, for whom they were made, had buried in the earth, and his mother long kept the place of concealment secret from him. The first time he uses one of them he slays in a duel his noble half-brother Hildeger, fighting on the side of the Skilfings, without knowing who he is (cp. Saxo, Hist., 351, 355, 356, with Asmund Kæmpebane’s saga). Cursed swords are several times mentioned in the sagas.

Halfdan’s weapon, which he wields successfully in advantageous exploits, is, in fact, the club (Saxo, Hist., 26, 31, 323, 353). That the Teutonic patriarch’s favourite weapon is the club, not the sword; that the latter, later, in his hand, sheds the blood of a kinsman; and that he himself finally is slain by the sword forged by Thjasse, and that, too, in conflict with a son (the step-son Svipdag—see below), I regard as worthy of notice from the standpoint of the views cherished during some of the centuries of the Teutonic heathendom in regard to the various age and sacredness of the different kinds of weapons. That the sword also at length was looked upon as sacred is plain from the fact that it was adopted and used by the Asa-gods. In Ragnarok, Vidar is to avenge his father with a hjörr and pierce Fafuer’s heart (Völuspa).

Hjörr may, it is true, also mean a missile, but still it is probable that it, in Vidar’s hand, means a sword. The oldest and most sacred weapons were the spear, the hammer, the club, and the axe. The spear which, in the days of Tacitus, and much later, was the chief weapon both for foot-soldiers and cavalry in the Teutonic armies, is wielded by the Asa-father himself, whose Gunguer was forged for him by Ivalde’s sons before the dreadful enmity between the gods and them had begun. The hammer is Thor’s most sacred weapon. Before Sindre

* Proofs of Thjasse’s original identity with Volund are given in Nos. 113-115.

forged one for him of iron (Gylfaginning), lie wielded a hammer of stone. This is evident from the very name hamarr, a rock, a stone. The club is, as we have seen, the weapon of the Teutonic patriarch, and is wielded side by side with Thor’s hammer in the conflict with the powers of frost. The battle-axe belonged to Njord. This is evident from the metaphors found in the Younger Edda, p. 346, and in Islend. Saga, 9. The mythological kernel in the former metaphor is Njördr klauf Herjan's hurir, i.e., "N cleaved Odin’s gates" (when the Vans conquered Asgard); in the other the battle - axe is called Gaut’s meginhurdar galli, i.e., "the destroyer of Odin’s great gate ". The bow is a weapon employed by the Asa-gods Hödr and Ullr, but Balder is slain by a shot from the bow, and the chief archer of the myth is, as we shall see, not an Asa-god, but a brother of Thjasse. (Further discussion of the weapon-myth will be found in No. 39.)

32.

HALFDAN’S CONFLICTS INTERPRETED AS MYTHS OF NATURE. THE WAR WITH THE HEROES FROM SVARIN’S MOUND. HALFDAN’S MARRIAGE WITH DISES OF VEGETATION.

In regard to the significance of the conflicts awaiting Halfdan, and occupying his whole life, when interpreted as myths of nature, we must remember that he inherits from his father the duty of stopping the progress southward of the giant-world’s wintry agents, the kinsmen of Thjasse, and of the Skilfing (Yngling) tribes dwelling in the north. The migration sagas have, as we have seen, shown that Borgar and his people had to leave the original country and move south to Denmark, Saxland, and to those regions on the other side of the Baltic in which the Goths settled. For a time the original country is possessed by the conquerors, who, according to Völuspa, "from Svarin’s Mound attacked and took (sótti) the clayey plains as far as Jaravall ". But Halfdan represses them. That the words quoted from Völuspa really refer to the same mythic persons with whom Halfdan afterwards fights is proved by the fact that Svarin and Svarin’s Mound are never named in our documents except in connection with Halfdan’s saga. In Saxo it is Halfdan Gram who slays Svarin and his numerous brothers; in the saga of "Helge Hundingsbane" it is again Halfdan, under the name Helge, who attacks tribes dwelling around Svarin’s Mound, and conquers them. To this may be added, that the compiler of the first song about Helge Hundingsbane borrowed from the saga-original, on which the song is based, names which point to the Völuspa strophe concerning the attack on the south Scandinavian plains. In the category of names, or the genealogy of the aggressors, occur, as has been shown already, the Skilfing names Alf and Yngve. Thus also in the Helge-song’s list of persons with whom the conflict is waged in the vicinity of Svarin’s Mound. In the Völuspa’s list Moinn is mentioned among the aggressors (in the variation in the Prose Edda); in the Helge-song, strophe 46, it is said that Helge-Halfdan fought á Móinsheimom against his brave foes, whom he afterwards slew in the battle around Svarin’s Mound. In the Völuspa’s list is named among the aggressors one Haugspori, "the one spying from the mound"; in the Helge-song is mentioned Sporvitnir, who from Svarin’s Mound watches the forces of Helge-Halfdan advancing. I have already (No. 28B) pointed out several other names which occur in the Völuspa list, and whose connection with the myth concerning the artists, frost-giants, and Skilfings of antiquity, and their attack on the original country, can be shown.

The physical significance of Halfdan’s conflicts and adventures is apparent also from the names of the women, whom the saga makes him marry. Groa (grow), whom he robs and keeps for some time, is, as her very name indicates, a goddess of vegetation. Signe-Alveig, whom he afterwards marries, is the same. Her name signifies "the nourishing drink ". According to Saxo she is the daughter of Sumblus, Latin for Sumbi, which means feast, ale, mead, and is a synonym for Ölvaldi, Ölmódr, names which belonged to the father of the Ivalde sons (see No. 123).

According to a well-supported statement in Forspjallsljod (see No. 123), Ivalde was the father of two groups of children. The mother of one of these groups is a giantess (see Nos. 113, 114, 115). With her he has three sons, viz., the three famous artists of antiquity—Ide, Gang-Urnir, and Thjasse. The mother of the other group is a goddess of light (see No. 123). With her he has daughters, who are goddesses of growth, among them Idun and Signe-Alveig. That Idun is the daughter of Ivalde is clear from Forspjallsljod (6), álfa ættar Iþunni héto Ivallds ellri yngsta barna.

Of the names of their father Sumbl, Ölvaldi, Ölmódr, it may be said that, as nature-symbols, "öl" (ale) and "mjöd" (mead), are in the Teutonic mythology identical with somna and somamadhu in Rigveda and haoma in Avesta, that is, they are the strength-developing, nourishing saps in nature. Mimir’s subterranean well, from which the world-tree draws its nourishment, is a mead-fountain. In the poem "Haustlaung" Idun is called Ölgefn; in the same poem Groa is called Ölgefion. Both appellations refer to goddesses who give the drink of growth and regeneration to nature and to the gods. Thus we here have a family, the names and epithets of whose members characterise them as forces, active in the service of nature and of the god of harvests. Their names and epithets also point to the family bond which unites them. We have the group of names, Ivaldi, Ii, Iunn, and the group, Ölvaldi (Ölmódr), Ölgefn, and Ölgefion, both indicating members of the same family. Further on (see Nos. 113, 114, 115) proof shall be presented that Groa’s first husband, Orvandel the brave, is one of Thjasse’s brothers, and thus that Groa, too, was closely connected with this family.

As we know, it is the enmity caused by Loki between the Asa-gods and the lower serving, yet powerful, divinities of nature belonging to the Ivalde group, which produces the terrible winter with its awful consequences for man, and particularly for the Teutonic tribes. These hitherto beneficent agents of growth have ceased to serve the gods, and have allied themselves with the frost-giants. The war waged by Halfdan must be regarded from this standpoint. Midgard’s chief hero, the real Teutonic patriarch, tries to reconquer for the Teutons the country of which winter has robbed them. To be able to do this, be is the son of Thor, the divine foe of the frost-giants, and performs on the of Midgard a work corresponding to that which Thor has to do in space and in Jotunheim. And in the same manner as Heimdal before secured favourable conditions of nature to the original country, by uniting the sun-goddess with himself through bonds of love, his grandson Halfdan now seeks to do the same for the Teutonic country, by robbing a hostile son of Ivalde, Orvandel, of his wife Groa, the growth—giver, and thereupon also of Alveig, the giver of the nourishing sap. A symbol of nature may also be found in Saxo’s statement, that the king of Svithiod, Sigtrygg, Groa’s father, could not be conquered unless Halfdan fastened a golden ball to his club (Hist., 31). The purpose of Halfdan’s conflicts, the object which the norns particularly gave to his life, that of reconquering from the powers of frost the northernmost regions of the Teutonic territory and of permanently securing them for culture, and the difficulty of this task is indicated, it seems to me, in the strophes above quoted, which tell us that the norns fastened the woof of his power in the east and west, and that he from the beginning, and undisputed, extended the sceptre of his rule over these latitudes, while in regard to the northern latitudes, it is said that Nere’s kinswoman, the chief of the norns (see Nos. 57-64, 85), cast a single thread in this direction and prayed that it might hold for ever:

þer austr oc vestr enda fâlo, þar átti lofdungr land a milli; brá nipt Nera a nordrvega einni festi, ey baþ hon halda.

The norns’ prayer was heard. That the myth made Halfdan proceed victoriously to the north, even to the very starting-point of the emigration to the south caused by the fimbul-winter, that is to say, to Svarin’s Mound, is proved by the statements that he slays Svarin and his brothers, and wins in the vicinity of Svarin’s Mound the victory over his opponents, which was for a time decisive. His penetration into the north, when regarded as a nature-myth, means the restoration of the proper change of seasons, and the rendering of the original country and of Svithiod inhabitable. As far as the hero, who secured the "giver of growth" and the "giver of nourishing sap," succeeds with the aid of his father Thor to carry his weapons into the Teutonic lands destroyed by frost, so far spring and summer again extend the sceptre of their reign. The songs about Helge Hundingsbane have also preserved from the myth the idea that Halfdan and his forces penetrating northward by land and by sea are accompanied in the air by "valkyries," "goddesses from the south," armed with helmets, coats of mail, and shining spears, who fight the forces of nature that are hostile to Halfdan, and these valkyries are in their very nature goddesses of growth, from the manes of whose horses falls the dew which gives the power of growth back to the earth and harvests to men. (Cp. HeIg. Hund., i 15, 30; ii., the prose to v. 5, 12, 13, with Helg. Hjörv., 28.) On this account the Swedes, too, have celebrated Halfdan in their songs as their patriarch and benefactor, and according to Saxo they have worshipped him as a divinity, although it was his task to check the advance of the Skilfings to the south.

Doubtless it is after this successful war that Halfdan performs the great sacrifice mentioned in Skaldskaparmal, ch. 64, in order that he may retain his royal power for three hundred years. The statement should be compared with what the German poems of the middle ages tell about the longevity of Berchtung-Borgar and other heroes of antiquity. They live for several centuries. But the response Halfdan gets from the powers to whom he sacrificed is that he shall live simply to the age of an old man, and that in his family there shall not for three hundred years be born a woman or a fameless man.

33.

REVIEW OF THE SVIPDAG MYTH AND ITS POINTS OF CONNECTION WITH THE MYTH ABOUT HALFDAN (cp. No. 24).

When Halfdan secured Groa, she was already the bride of Orvandel the brave, and the first son she bore in Halfdan’s house was not his, but Orvandel’s. The son’s name is Svmpdag. He develops into a hero who, like Halfdan himself, is the most brilliant and most beloved of those celebrated in Teutonic songs. We have devoted a special part of this work to him (see Nos. 96-107). There we have given proofs of various mythological facts, which I now already must incorporate with the following series of events in order that the epic thread may not be wanting:

(a) Groa bears with Halfdan the son Guthorm (Saxo, Hist. Dan., 34).

(b) Groa is rejected by Halfdan (Saxo, Hist. Dan., 33). She returns to Orvandel, and brings with her her own and his son Svipdag.

(e) Halfdan marries Signe-Alveig (Hyndluljod, 15; Prose Edda, i. 516; Saxo, Hist., 33), and with her becomes the father of the son Hadding (Saxo, Hist. Dan., 34).

(d) Groa dies, and Orvandel marries again (Grógaldr, 3). Before her death Groa has told her son that if he needs her help he must go to her grave and invoke her (Grógaldr, 1).

(e) It is Svipdag’s duty to revenge on Halfdan the disgrace done to his mother and the murder of his mother’s father Sigtrygg. But his stepmother bids Svipdag seek Menglad, "the one loving ornaments" (Grógaldr, 3).

(f) Under the weight of these tasks Svipdag goes to his mother’s grave, bids her awake from her sleep of death, and from her he receives protecting incantations (Grógaldr, 1).

(g) Before Svipdag enters upon the adventurous expedition to find Menglad, he undertakes, at the head of the giants, the allies of the Ivaldesons (see Fjölsvinsm, 1, where Svipdag is called Þursaþjoar sjólr), a war of revenge against Halfdan (Saxo, 33 ff., 325; cp. Nos. 102, 103). The host of giants is defeated, and Svipdag, who has entered into a duel with his stepfather, is overcome by the latter. Halfdan offers to spare his life and adopt him as his son. But Svipdag refuses to accept life as a gift from him, and answers a defiant no to the proffered father-hand. Then Halfdan binds him to a tree and leaves him to his fate (Saxo, Hist., 325 ; cp. No. 103).

(h) Svipdag is freed from his bonds through one of the incantations sung over him by his mother (Grógaldr, 10).

(i) Svipdag wanders about sorrowing in the land of the giants. Gevarr-Nökkve, god of the moon (see Nos. 90, 91), tells him how he is to find an irresistible sword, which is always attended by victory (see No. 101). The sword is forged by Thjasse, who intended to destroy the world of the gods with it; but just at the moment when the smith had finished his weapon he was surprised in his sleep by Mimir, who put him in chains and took the sword. The latter is now concealed in the lower world (see Nos. 98, 101, 103).

(j) Following Gevarr-Nökkve’s directions, Svipdag goes to the northernmost edge of the world, and finds there a descent to the lower world; he conquers the guard of the gates of Hades, sees the wonderful regions down there, and succeeds in securing the sword of victory (see Nos. 53, 97, 98, 101, 103, 112).

(k) Svipdag begins a new war with Halfdan. Thor fights on his son’s side, but the irresistible sword cleaves the hammer Mjolner; the Asa-god himself must yield. The war ends with Halfdan’s defeat. He dies of the wounds he has received in the battle (see Nos. 101, 103; cp. Saxo, Hist., 34).

(l) Svipdag seeks and finds Menglad, who is Freyja who was robbed by the giants. He liberates her and sends her pure and undefiled to Asgard (see Nos. 96, 98, 100, 102).

(m) Idun is brought back to Asgard by Loki. Thjasse, who is freed from his prison at Mimir’s, pursues, in the guise of an eagle, Loki to the walls of Asgard, where he is slain by the gods (see the Eddas).

(n) Svipdag, armed with the sword of victory, goes to Asgard, is received joyfully by Freyja, becomes her husband, and presents his sword of victory to Frey. Reconciliation between the gods and the Ivalde race. Njord marries Thjasse’s daughter Skade. Orvandel’s second son Ull, Svipdag’s half-brother (see No. 102), is adopted in Valhal. A sister of Svipdag is married to Forsete (Hyndluljod, 20). The gods honour the memory of Thjasse by connecting his name with certain stars (Harbardsljod, 19). A similar honour had already been paid to his brother Orvandel (Prose Edda).

From this series of events we find that, although the Teutonic patriarch finally succumbs in the war which he waged against the Thjasse-race and the frost-powers led by Thjasse’s kinsmen, still the results of his work are permanent. When the crisis had reached its culminating point; when the giant hosts of the fimbulwinter had received as their leader the son of Orvandel, armed with the irresistible sword; when Halfdan’s fate is settled; when Thor himself, Midgard’s veorr (Völusp.), the mighty protector of earth arid the human race, must retreat with his lightning hammer broken into pieces, then the power of love suddenly prevails and saves the world. Svipdag, who, under the spell of his deceased mother’s incantations from the grave, obeyed the command of his stepmother to find and rescue Freyja from the power of the giants, thereby wins her heart and earns the gratitude of the gods. He has himself learned to love her, and is at last compelled by his longing to seek her in Asgard. The end of the power of the fimbul-winter is marked by Freyja’s and Idun’s return to the gods by Thjasse’s death, by the presentation of the invincible sword to the god of harvests (Frey), by the adoption of Thjasse’s kinsmen, Svipdag, Ull, and Skade in Asgard, and by several marriage ties celebrated in commemoration of the reconciliation between Asgard’s gods and the kinsmen of the great artist of antiquity.

34.

THE WORLD WAR. ITS CAUSE. THE MURDER OF GULLVEIG-HEIDR. THE VOICE OF COUNSEL BETWEEN THE ASAS AND THE VANS.

Thus the peace of the world and the order of nature might seem secured. But it is not long before a new war breaks out, to which the former may be regarded as simply the prelude. The feud, which had its origin in the judgment passed by the gods on Thjasse’s gifts, and which ended in the marriage of Svipdag and Freyja, was waged for the purpose of securing again for settlement and culture the ancient domain and Svithiod, where Heimdal had founded the first community. It was confined within the limits of the North Teutonic peninsula, and in it the united powers of Asgard supported the other Teutonic tribes fighting under Half-dan. But the new conflict rages at the same time in heaven and in earth, between the divine clans of the Asas and the Vans, and between all the Teutonic tribes led into war with each other by Halfdan’s sons. From the standpoint of Teutonic mythology it is a world war; and Völuspa calls it the first great war in the world— folevig fyrst i heimi (str. 21, 25).

Loki was the cause of the former prelusive war. His feminine counterpart and ally Gullveig-Heidr, who gradually is blended, so to speak, into one with him, causes the other. This is apparent from the following Völuspa strophes:

Str. 21. þat man hon folevig fyrst i heimi er Gullveig geirum studdu oc i haull Hárs hana brendo.

Str. 22. þrysvar brendo þrysvar borna opt osialdan þo hon en lifir.

Str. 23. Heia hana heto hvars til husa com vólo velspá vitti hon ganda sei hon, kuni seid hon Leikin, e var hon angan illrar brudar.

Str. 24. þá gengo regin oll a raukstola ginheilog god oc um þat gettuz hvart scyldo esir afra gialda eþa scyldo goin aull gildi ciga.

Str. 25. Eleyge Odin oc ifole um seáut þat var en folevig fyrst i heimi. Brotin var borvegr borgar asa knatto vanir vigspa vollo sporna.

The first thing to be established in the interpretation of these strophes is the fact that they, in the order in which they are found in Codex Regius, and in which I have given them, all belong together and refer to the same mythic event—that is, to the origin of the great world war. This is evident from a comparison of strophe 21 with 25, the first and last of those quoted. Both speak of the war, which is called fólkvig fyrst í heimi. The former strophe informs us that it occurred as a result of, and in connection with, the murder of Gulveig, a murder committed in Valhal itself, in the hail of the Asa-father, beneath the roof where the gods of the Asaclan are gathered around their father. The latter strophe tells that the first great war in the world produced a separation between the two god-claus, the Asas and Vans, a division caused by the fact that Odin, hurling his spear, interrupted a discussion between them; and the strophe also explains the result of the war: the bulwark around Asgard was broken, and the Vans got possession of the power of the Asas. The discussion or council is explained in strophe 24. It is there expressly emphasised that all the gods, the Asas and Vans, regin oll, godin aull, solemnly assemble and seat themselves on their raukstola to counsel together concerning the murder of Gullveig-Heidr. Strophe 23 has already described who Gulveig is, and thus given at least one reason for the hatred of the Asas towards her, and for the treatment she receives in Odin’s ball. It is evident that she was in Asgard under the name Gulveig, since Gulveig was killed and burnt in Valhal; but Midgard, the abode of man, has also been the scene of her activity. There she has roamed about under the name Heidr, practising the evil arts of black sorcery (see No. 27) and encouraging the evil passions of mankind: æ var hon angan illrar bruar. Hence Gulveig suffers the punishment which from time immemorial was established among the Aryans for the practice of the black art; she was burnt. And her mysteriously terrible and magic nature is revealed by the fact that the flames, though kindled by divine hands, do not have the power over her that they have over other agents of sorcery. The gods burn her thrice; they pierce the body of the witch with their spears, and hold her over the flames of the fire. All is in vain. They cannot prevent her return and regeneration. Thrice burned and thrice born, she still lives.

After Völuspa has given an account of the vala who in Asgard was called Gullveig and on earth Heir, the poem speaks, in strophe 24, of the dispute which arose among the gods on account of her murder. The gods assembled on and around the judgment seats are divided into two parties, of which the Asas constitute the one. The fact that the treatment received by Gulveig can become a question of dispute which ends in enmity between the gods is a proof that only one of the god-clans has committed the murder; and since this took place, not in Njord’s, or Frey’s, or Freyja’s halls, but in VaIhal, where Odin rules and is surrounded by his sons, it follows that the Asas must have committed the murder. Of course, Vans who were guests in Odin’s hall might have been the perpetrators of the murder; but, on the one hand, the poem would scarcely have indicated Odin’s ball as the place where Gulveig was to be punished, unless it wished thereby to point out the Asas as the doers of the deed; and, on the other hand, we cannot conceive the murder as possible, as described in Völuspa, if the Vans were the ones who committed it, and the Asas were Gulveig’s protectors; for then the latter, who were the lords in Valhal, would certainly not have permitted the Vans quietly and peaceably to subject Gulveig to the long torture there described, in which she is spitted on spears and held over the flames to be burnt to ashes.

That the Asas committed the murder is also corroborated by Völuspa’s account of the question in dispute. One of the views prevailing in the consultation and discussion in regard to the matter is that the Asas ought to afrád gjalda in reference to the murder committed. In this afrá gjalda we meet with a phrase which is echoed in the laws of Iceland, and in the old codes of Norway and Sweden. There can be no doubt that the phrase has found its way into the language of the law from the popular vernacular, and that its legal significance was simply more definite and precise than its use in the vernacular. The common popular meaning of the phrase is to pay compensation. The compensation may be of any kind whatsoever. It may be rent for the use of another’s field, or it may be taxes for the enjoyment of social rights, or it may be death and wounds for having waged war. In the present instance, it must mean compensation to be paid by the Asas for the slaying of Gullveig-Heidr. As such a demand could not be made by the Asas themselves, it must have been made by the Vans and their supporters in the discussion. Against this demand we have the proposition from the Asas that all the gods should gildi eiga. In regard to this disputed phrase at least so much is clear, that it must contain either an absolute or a partial counter-proposition to the deniand of the Vans, and its purpose must be that the Asas ought not—at least, not alone—to pay the compensation for the murder, but that the crime should be regarded as one in reference to which all the gods, the Asas and the Vans, were a like guilty, and as one for which they all together should assume the responsibility.

The discussion does not lead to a friendly settlement. Something must have been said at which Odin has become deeply offended, for the Asa-father, distinguished for his wisdom and calmness, hurls his spear into the midst of those deliberating—a token that the contest of reason against reason is at an end, and that it is to be followed by a contest with weapons. The myth concerning this deliberation between Asas and Vans was well known to Saxo, and what he has to say about it (Hist., 126 if.), turning myth as usual into history, should be compared with Völuspa’s account, for both these sources complement each other.

The first thing that strikes us in Saxo’s narrative is that sorcery, the black art, plays, as in Völuspa, the chief part in the chain of events. His account is taken from a mythic circumstance, mentioned by the heathen skald Kormak (sei Yggr til Rindar— Younger Edda, i. 236), according to which Odin, forced by extreme need, sought the favour of Rind, and gained his point by sorcery and witchcraft, as he could not gain it otherwise. According to Saxo, Odin touched Rind with a piece of bark on which he had inscribed magic songs, and the result was that she became insane (Rinda . . . quam Othinus cortice carminibus adnotato contingens lymphanti similem reddidit). In immediate connection herewith it is related that the gods held a council, in which it was claimed that Odin had stained his divine honour, and ought to be deposed from his royal dignity (dii . . . Othinum variis majestatis detrimentis divinitatis gloriam. maculasse cernentes, collegio suo submocendum duxerunt—Hist., 129). Among the deeds of which his opponents in this council accused him was, as it appears from Saxo, at least one of which he ought to take the consequences, but for which all the gods ought not to be held responsible (. . . ne vet ipsi, alieno crimine implicati, insontes nocentis crimine punirentur—Hist., 129; in omnium caput unius culpam recidere putares, Hist., 130). The result of the deliberation of the gods is, in Saxo as in Völuspa, that Odin is banished, and that another clan of gods than his holds the power for some time. Thereupon he is, with the consent of the reigning gods, recalled to the throne, which he henceforth occupies in a brilliant manner. But one of his first acts after his return is to banish the black art and its agents from heaven and from earth (Hist., 44).

Thus the chain of events in Saxo both begins and ends with sorcery. It is the background on which both in Saxo and in Völuspa those events occur which are connected with the dispute between the Asas and Vans. In both the documents the gods meet in council before the breaking out of the enmity. In both the question turns on a deed done by Odin, for which certain gods do not wish to take the responsibility. Saxo indicates this by the words: Ne vel ipsi, alieno crimine implicati, innocentes nocentis crimine punirentur. Völuspa indicates it by letting the Vans present, against the proposition that godin öll skyldu gildi eiga, the claim that Odin’s own clan, and it alone, should afrá gjalda. And while Völuspa makes Odin suddenly interrupt the deliberations and hurl his spear among the deliberators, Saxo gives us the explanation of his sudden wrath. He and his clan had slain and burnt Gulveig-Heid because she practised sorcery and other evil arts of witchcraft. And as he refuses to make compensation for the murder and demands that all the gods take the consequences and share the blame, the Vans have replied in council, that he too once practised sorcery on the occasion when he visited Rind, and that, if Gulveig was justly burnt for this crime, then he ought justly to be deposed from his dignity stained by the same crime as the ruler of all the gods. Thus Völuspa’s and Saxo’s accounts supplement and illustrate each other.

One dark point remains, however. Why have the Vans objected to the killing of Gulveig-Heid? Should this clan of gods, celebrated in song as benevolent, useful, and pure, be kindly disposed toward the evil and corrupting arts of witchcraft? This cannot have been the meaning of the myth. As shall be shown, the evil plans of Gulveig-Heid have particularly been directed against those very Vana-gods who in the council demand compensation for her death. In this regard Saxo has in perfect faithfulness toward his mythic source represented Odin on the one hand, and his opponents among the gods on the other, as alike hostile to the black art. Odin, who on one occasion and under peculiar circumstances, which I shall discuss in connection with the Balder myth, was guilty of the practice of sorcery, is nevertheless the declared enemy of witchcraft, and Saxo makes him take pains to forbid and persecute it. The Vans likewise look upon it with horror, and it is this horror which adds strength to their words when they attack and depose Odin, because he has himself practised that for which he has punished Gulveig.

The explanation of the fact is, as shall be shown below, that Frey, on account of a passion of which he is the victim (probably through sorcery), was driven to marry the giant maid Gerd, whose kin in that way became friends of the Vans. Frey is obliged to demand satisfaction for a murder perpetrated on a kinswoman of his wife. The kinship of blood demands its sacred right, and according to Teutonic ideas of law, the Vans must act as they do regardless of the moral character of Gulveig.

35.

GULLVEIG-HEIDR. HER IDENTITY WITH AURBODA, ANGRBODA, HYRROKIN. THE MYTH CONCERNING THE SWORD GUARDIAN AND FJALAR.

The duty of the Vana-deities becomes even more plain, if it can be shown that Gulveig-Heid is Gerd’s mother; for Frey, supported by the Vana-gods, then demnands satisfaction for the murder of his own mother-in-law. Gerd’s mother is, in Hyndluljod, 30, called Aurboda, and is the wife of the giant Gymer:

Freyr atti Gerdi, Hon vor Gymis dottir, iotna ættar ok Aurbodu.

It can, in fact, be demonstrated that Aurboda is identical with Gulveig-Heid. The evidence is given below in two divisions.

(a) Evidence that Gulveig-Heid is identical with Angerboda, "the ancient one in the Ironwood"; (b) evidence that Gulveig-HeidAngerboda is identical with Aurboda, Gerd’s mother.

(a) Gulveid-Heid identical with Angerboda. Hyndluljod, 40, 41, says: ol ulf Loki vid Angrbodu, (enn Sleipni gat vid Svadilfara); eitt þotti skars allra feikna.zst þat var brodur fra Byleistz komit. Loki af hiarta lindi brendu, fann hann haalfsuidinn hugstein konu; yard Loptr kvidugr af konu illri; þadani er aa folldu fiagd hvert komit.

From the account we see that an evil female being (ill kona) had been burnt, but that the flames were not able to destroy the seed of life in her nature. Her heart had not been burnt through or changed to ashes. It was only half-burnt (hálfsvidinn hugsteinn), and in this condition it had together with the other remains of the cremated woman been thrown away, for Loki finds and swallows the heart.

Our ancestors looked upon the heart as the seat of the life principle, of the soul of living beings. A number of linguistic phrases are founded on the idea that goodness and evil, kindness and severity, courage and cowardice, joy and sorrow, are connected with the character of the heart; sometimes we find hjarta used entirely in the sense of soul, as in the expression hold ok hjarta, soul and body. So long as the heart in a dead body had not gone into decay, it was believed that the principle of life dwelling therein still was able, under peculiar circumstances, to operate on the limbs and exercise an influence on its environment, particularly if the dead person in life had been endowed with a will at once evil and powerful. In such cases it was regarded as important to pierce the heart of the dead with a pointed spear (cp. Saxo, Hist., 43, and No. 95).

The half-burnt heart, accordingly, contains the evil woman’s soul, and its influence upon Loki, after he has swallowed it, is most remarkable. Once before when he bore Sleipner with the giant horse Svadilfare, Loki had revealed his androgynous nature So he does now. The swallowed heart redeveloped the feminine in him (Loki lindi af brendu hjarta). It fertilised him with the evil purposes which the heart contained. Loki became the possessor of the evil woman (kvidugr. af konu illri), and became the father of the children froni which the trolls (flagd) are come which are found in the world. First among the children is mentioned the wolf, which is called Fenrir, and which in Ragnarok shall cause the death of the Asa- father. To this event point Njord’s words about Loki, in Lokasenna, str. 33: ass ragr er hefir born of borit. The woman possessing the half-burnt heart, who is the mother or rather the father of the wolf, is called Angerboda (ól ulf Loki vi Angrbodu). N. M. Petersen and other mythologists have rightly seen that she is the same as "the old one," who in historical times and until Ragnarok dwells in the Ironwood, and "there fosters Fenrer’s kinsmen" (Völuspa, 39), her own offspring, which at the close of this period are to issue from the Iron-wood, and break into Midgard and dye its citadels with blood (Völuspa, 30).

The fact that Angerboda now dwells in the Ironwood, although there on a former occasion did not remain more of her than a half-burnt heart, proves that the attempt to destroy her with fire was unsuccessful, and that she arose again in bodily form after this cremation, and became the mother and nourisher of were-wolves. Thus the myth about Angerboda is identical with the myth about Gulveig-Heid in the two characteristic points

1.     Unsuccessful burning of an evil woman.

2.     Her regeneration after the cremation.

These points apply equally to Gulveig-Heid and to Angerboda, "the old one in the Ironwood ". The myth about Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, as it was remnembered in the first period after the introduction of Christianity, we find in part recapitulated in Helgakvida Hundingsbane, i. 37-40, where Sinfjotle compares his opponent Gudmund with the evil female principle in the heathen mythology, the vala imi question, and where Gudmund in return compares Sinfjotle with its evil masculine principle, Loki.

Sinfjotle says:

þu vart vaulra I Varinseyio, scollvis kona bartu scrauc saman; þu vart, en sceþa, scass valkgria, autul, amátlig at Alfaudar ; mundo einherjar allir beriaz, svevis koua, um sakar þinar. Nio atta viþ a neri Sagu ulfa alna cc var einn faþir þeirra.

Gudmund’s answer begins:

Fadir varattu fenirisulfa...

The evil woman with whom one of the two heroes compares the other is said to be a vala, who has practised her art partly on Varin’s Isle, partly in Asgard at Alfather’s, and there she was the cause of a war in which all the warriors of Asgard took part. This refers to the war between the Asas and Vans. It is the second feud among the powers of Asgard.

The vala must therefore be Gulveig-Heid of the myth, on whose account the war between the Asas and Vans broke out, according to Völuspa. Now it is said of her in the lines above quoted, that she gave birth to wolves, and that these wolves were fenrisulfar ". Of Angerboda we already know that she is the mother of the real Fenris—wolf, and that she, in the Ironwood, produces other wolves which are called by Fenrer’s name (Fenris kindir—Völuspa). Thus the identity of Gulveig-Heid and Angerboda is still further established by the fact that both the one and the other is called the mother of the Fenris family.

The passage quoted is not the only one which has preserved the memory of Gulveig-Heid as mother of the were-wolves. Volsungasaga (c. ii. 8) relates that a giantess, Hrímnir’s daughter, first dwelt in Asgard as the maid-servant of Frigg, then on earth, and that she, during her sojourn on earth, became the wife of a king, and with him the mother and grandmother of were-wolves, who infested the woods and murdered men. The fantastic and horrible saga about these were-wolves has, in Christian times and by Christian authors, been connected with the poems about Helge Hundingsbane and Sigurd Fafnersbane. The circumstance that the giantess in question first dwelt in Asgard and thereupon in Midgard, indicates that she is identical with Gulveig-Heid, and this identity is confirmed by the statement that she is a daughter of the giant Hrímnir.

The myth, as it has come down to our days, knows only one daughter of this giant, and she is the same as Gimlveig-Heid. Hyudluljod states that Heidr is Hrimnir's daughter, and mentions no sister of hers, but, on the other hand, a brother Hrossþiofr (Heidr ok Hrorsþiofr Hrimnis kinidar—Hyndl., 30). In allusion to the cremation of Gulveig-Heid fire is called in Thorsdrapa Hrimmis drósar lyptisylgr, "the lifting drink of Hrimner’s daughter," the drink which Heid lifted up on spears had to drink. Nowhere is any other daughter of Hrimner mentioned. And while it is stated in the above-cited strophe that the giantess who caused the war in Asgard and became the mother of fenriswolves was a vala on Varin’s Isle (vaulva i Varinseyio), a comparison of Helgakv.. Hund., i. 26, with Volsungasaga, c. 2, shows that Varin’s Isle and Varin’s Fjord were located in that very country, where Hrimner’s daughter was supposed to have been for some time the wife of a king and to have givemi birth to were-wolves.

Thus we have found that the three characteristic points— unsuccessful cremation of an evil giantess, her regeneration after the cremation, the same woman as mother of the Fenrer race— are common to Gulveig—Heid and Angerboda. Their identity is apparent from various other circumstances, but may be regarded as completely demonstrated by the proofs given. Gulveig’s activity in anitiquity as the founder of the diabolical magic art, as one who awakens man’s evil passions and produces strife in Asgard itself, has its complement in Angemboda’s activity as the mother and nourisher of that class of beings in whose members witchcraft, thirst for blood, and hatred of the gods are personified. Tine activity of the evil principle has, in the great epic of the myth, formed a continuity spanning all ages, amid this continuous thread of evil is twisted from the treacherous deeds of Gulveig and Loki, the feminine and the masculine representatives of the evil principhe. Both appear at the dawn of mankind : Loki has already at the beginning of time secured access to Alfather (Lokasenna, 9), and Gulveig deceives the sons of men already in the time of Heimdal’s son Borgar. Loki entices Idun from the secure grounds of Asgard, and treacherously delivers her to the powers of frost ; Gulveig, as we shall see, plays Freyja into the hands of the giants. Loki plans enmity between the gods and the forces of nature, which hitherto had been friendly, and which have their personal representatives in Ivalde’s sons ; Gulveig causes the war between the Asas and Vans. The interference of both is interrupted at the close of the mythic age, when Loki is chained, and Gulveig, in the guise of Angerboda, is aii exile in the Ironwood. Before this they have for a time been blended, so to speak, into a single being, in which the feminine assuming masculineness, and the masculine effemninated, bear to tine world an offspring of foes to tine gods and to creation. Both finally act their paints in the destruction of the world. Before that crisis comes Aingerboda has fostered that host of "sons of world-ruin" which Loki is to lead to battle, and a magic sword which sine has kept in tIne Ironwood is given to Surt, in whose hand it is to be the death of Frey, the lord of harvests (see Nos. 89, 98, 101, 103).

That the woman whno in antiquity, in various guises, visited Asgard and Midgard was believed to have had her home in tine Ironwood* of the East during the historical age down to Ragnarok

* In Völuspa the wood is called both Jarnvidr Gaglvidr (Cod. Reg.), and Gulgvidr (Cod. Hank.). It may be that we here have a fossil word preserved in Völuspa meaning metal. Perhaps the wood was a copper or bronze forest before it became an iron wood. Compare ghalgha, ghalghi (Fick., ii. .578) metal, which, again, is to be compared with c a l koV = copper, bronze.

is explained by what Saxo says—viz., that Odin, after his return and reconciliation with the Vans, banished the agents of the black art both from heaven and from earth. Here, too, the connection between Gulveig-Heid and Angerboda is manifest. The war between the Asas and Vans was caused by the burning of Gulveig by the former. After the reconciliation with the Asas this punishment cannot again be inflicted on the regenerated witch. The Asas must allow her to live to tine end of time; but both the clans of gods agree that she must not show her face again in Asgard or Midgard. The myth concerning the banishment of the fatuous vala to the Ironwood, and of the Loki progeny which she there fosters, has been turned into history by Jordanes in his De Goth. Origine, ch. 24, where it is stated that a Gothic king compelled the suspected valas (haliorunas) found among his people to take their refuge to the deserts in the East beyond the Moeotian Marsh, where they mixed with tine wood-sprites, and this became the progenitors of the Huns. In this manner the Christian Goths got from their mythic traditions an explanation of the source of the eastern hosts of horsemen, whose ugly faces and barbarous manners seemed to them to prove an other than purely human origin. The vala Gulveig-Heid and her like become in Jordanes these haliorunæ; Lake and the giants of the Ironwood become these wood-sprites the Asa-god who caused the banishment becomes a king, son of Gandaricus Magnus (the great ruler of the Gandians, Odin), and Loki’s and Angerboda’s wonderful progeny beconne the Huns.

Stress should be laid on the fact that Jordanes and Saxo have in tine same manner preserved the tradition that Odin and the Asas, after making peace and becoming reconciled with the Vans, do not apply the death-penalty and burning to Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda and her kith and kin, but, instead, sentence them to banishment from the domains of gods and en That the tradition preserved in Saxo amid Jordanes corresponded with the myth is proved by the fact that we there rediscover Gulveig-Heid-Amigerboda with her offspring in tine Ironwood, which was thought to be situated in the utmost East, far away from the human world, and that she remains there undisturbed until the destruction of the world. The reconciliation between tine Asas and Vans has, as this conclusively shows, been based on an admission on the part of the Asas that the Vans had a right to find fault with amid demand satisfaction for the murder of Gulveig-Heid. Thus the dispute which caused the war between Asas and Vans was at last decided to the advantage of the latter, while they on their part, after being satisfied, reinstate Odin in his dignity as universal ruler and father of the gods.

(b) Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda identical with Aurboda.

In the Ironwood dwells Angerboda, together with a giant, who is gygjar hirdir, the guardian and watcher of the giantess. He has charge of her remarkable herds, and also guards a sword brought to the Ironwood. This vocation has given him the epithet Egther (Egþerr—Völuspa), which means sword-guardian. Saxo speaks of him as Egtherus, an ally of Finns, skilled in magic, and a chief of Bjarmians, equally skilful in magic (cp. Hist., 248, 249, with Nos. 52, 53). Bjarmians and Finns are in Saxo made the heirs of the wicked inhabitants of Jotunheim. Vilkinasaga knows him by the name Etgeir, who watches over precious implements in Isung’s wood. Etgeir is a corruption of Egther, and Isung’s wood is a reminiscence of Isarnvidr, Isarnho, the Ironwood. In the Vilkinasaga he is the brother of Vidolf. According to Hyndluljod, all the valas of the myth come from Vidolf. As Gulveig-Heid- Angerboda is the chief of all valas, and the teacher of the arts practised by the valas, this statement in Hyndluljod makes us think of her particularly; and as Hrimnir’s daughter has been born and burnt several timnes, she may also have had several fathers. Among them, then, is Vidolf, whose character, as described by Saxo, fits well for such a daughter. He is a master in sorcery, and also skilful in the art of medicine. But the medical art he practises in such a tnanner that those who seek his help receive from him such remedies as do harm instead of good. Only by threats can he be made to do good with his art (Hist., 323, 324). The statemnent in Vilkinasaga compared with that in Hyndluljod seems therefore to point to a near kinship between Angerboda and her sword-guard. She appears to be the daughter of his brother.

In Völuspa’s description of the approach of Ragnarok, Egther, Angerboda’s shepherd, is represented as sitting on a mound—like Aurboda’s shepherd in Skirnisför—and playing a harp, happy over that which is to happen. That the giant who is hostile to the gods, and who is the guardian of the strange herds, does not play an idyl on the strings of his harp does not need to be stated. He is visited by a being in the guise of the red cock. The cock, says Völuspa, is Fjalarr (str. 44). What the heathen records tell us about Fjalar is the following:

(a) He is the same giant as the Younger Edda (i. 144 ff.) calls Utgard-Loki. The latter is a fire - giant, Loge’s, the fire’s ruler (Younger Edda, 152), the cause of earthquakes (Younger Edda, 144), and skilled in producing optical delusions. Fjalar’s identity with Utgard-Loki is proved by Harbardsljod, str. 26, where Thor, on his way to Fjalar, meets with the same adventures as, according to the Younger Edda, lie met with on his way to Utgard-Loke.

(b) He is the same giant as the one called Suttung. The giant from whom Odin robs the skaldic mead, and whose devoted daughter Gunlad he causes bitter sorrow, is called in Havamál sometimes Fjalar and sometimes Suttung (cp. strs. 13, 14, 104, 105).

(c) Fjalar is the son of the chief of the fire-giants, Surtr, and dwells in the subterranean dales of the latter. A full account of this imi No. 89. Here it will suffice to point out that when Odin flies out of Fjalar’s dwelling with the skaldic mead, it is "from Surt’s deep dales" that he "flying bears" the precious drink (hinn er Surts or sökkdölum farmagnur fljúgandi bar, a strophe by Eyvind, quoted in the Younger Edda, p. 242), and that this drink while it remained with Fjalar was "the drink of Surt’s race" Sylgr Surts ættar, Fornms., iii. 3).

(d) Fjalar, with Froste, takes part in the attack of Thjasse’s kinsmen and the Skilfings from Svarin’s Mound against "the land of the clayey plains, to Jaravall" (Völuspa, 14, 15 ; see Nos. 28, 32). Thins he is allied with the powers of frost, who are foes of the gods, and who seek to conquer the Teutonic domain. The approach of the fimbul-winter was also attended by an earthquake (see Nos. 28, 81).

When, therefore, Völuspa makes Fjalar on his visit to the sword-guardian in the Ironwood appear in the guise of the red cock, then this is in harmony with Fjalar’s nature as a fire—giant and as a son of Surt.

* In Bragerædur's pseudo-mythic account of the Skaldic mead (Younger Edda, 216 ff.) the name Fjalarr also appears. In regard to tire value of this account, see tire investigation in No. 89.

Sat þar a haugi oc sló haurpo gygjar hirþir gladr Egþer. Gol um hanom i galgviþi fagrraudr hani sa er Fjalar heitir (Völusp., 41).

The red cock has from time immemorial been the symbol of fire as a destructive power. That what Odin does against Fjalar—when he robs him of the mead, which in the myth is the most precious of all drinks, and when he deceived his daughter—is calculated to awaken Fjalar’s thirst for revenge and to bring about a satisfaction sooner or later, lies in the very spirit of Teutonic poetry and ethics, especially since Odin’s act, though done from a good motive, was morally reprehensible. What Fjalar’s errand to Angerboda’s sword-guard was appears from the fact that when the last war between the gods and their enemies is fought a short time afterwards, Fjalar’s father, the chief of the fire-giants, Surt, is armed with the best of the mythical weapons, the sword which had belonged to a valtivi, one of the gods of Asgard (Völusp., 50), and which casts the splendour of the sun upon the world. The famous sword of the myth, t.hat which Thjasse finished with a purpose hostile to the gods (see No. 87 and elsewhere), the sword concealed by Mimir (see Nos. 87, 98, 101), the sword found by Svipdag (see Nos. 89, 101, 103), the sword secured through him by Frey, the one given by Frey to Gymer and Aurboda in exchange for Gerd,—this sword is found again in the Ragnarok conflict, wielded by Surt, and causes Frey’s death (Völuspa), it having been secured by Surt’s son, Fjalar, in the Ironwood from Angerboda’s sword-guard.

Gulli keypta leztu Gym is dotturoc seldir þitt sva sverþ; Enn er Muspells synir ria myreviþ yfir veizta þu þu, vesall, hve þa vegr (Lokas., 42).

This passage not only tells us that Frey gave his sword in exchange for Gerd to the parents of the giantess, Gymer and Aurboda, but also gives us to understand that this bargain shall cause his death in Ragnarok. This bride-purchase is fully described in Skirnismal, in which poem we learn that the gods most unwillingly part with the safety which the incomparable sword secured to Asgard. They yield in order to save the life of the harvest-god, who was wasting away with longing and anxiety, but not until the giants had refused to accept other Asgard treasures, among them the precious ring Draupner, which the Asa-father once laid on the pulseless breast of his favourite son Balder. At the approach of Ragnarok, Surt’s son, Fjahar, goes to the Ironwood to fetch for his father the sword by which Frey, its former possessor, is to fall. The sword is then guarded by Angerboda’s shepherd, and consequently belongs to her. In other words, the sword which Aurboda enticed Frey to give her is now found in the possession of Angerboda. This circumstance of itself is a very strong reason for their identity. If there were no other evidence of their identity than this, a sound application of methodology would still bid us accept this identity rather than explain the matter by inventing a new, nowhere-supported myth, and thus making the sword pass from Aurboda to another giantess.

When we now add the important fact in the disposition of this matter, that Aurboda’s son-in-law, Frey, demands, in behalf of a near kinsman, satisfaction from the Asas when they had killed and burnt Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, then it seems to me that there can be no doubt in regard to the identity of Aurboda and Angerboda, the less so, since all that our mythic fragments have to tell us about Gymer’s wife confirms tlne theory that she is the same person. Aurboda has, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda, practised the arts of sorcery: she is one of the valas of the evil giant world. This is told to us in a strophe by the skald Refr, who calls her "Gymer’s primeval cold vala" (ursvöl Gymnis völva—Younger Edda, i. 326, 496). She might be called "primeval cold" (ursvöl) from the fact that the fire was not able to pierce her heart and change it to ashes, in spite of a threefold burning. Under all circumstances, the passage quoted informs us that she is a vala.

But have our mythic fragments preserved any allusion to show that Aurboda, like Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda. ever dwelt among the gods in Asgard ? Asgard is a place where giants are refused admittance. Exceptions fromn this prohibition must have been very few, and the myths must have given good reasons for them. We k-now in regard to Loki’s appearance in Asgard, that it is based on a promise given to him by the Asa-father in time’s morning ; and the promise was sealed with blood (Lokasenna, 9). If, now, this Aurboda, who, like Angerboda, is a vala of giant race, and, like Angerboda, is the owner of Frey’s sword, and, like Angerboda, is a kinswoman of the Vans—if now this same Aurboda, in further likeness with Angerboda, was one of the certainly very few of the giant class who was permitted to enter within the gates of Asgard, then it must be admitted that this fact absolutely confirms their identity.

Anrboda did actually dwell in Asgard. Of this we are assured by the poem " Fjölsvinsmal ". There it is related that when Svipdag came to the gates of Asgard to seek and find Menglad-Freyja, who was destined to be his wife (see Nos. 96, 97), he sees Menglad sitting on a hill surrounded by goddesses, whose very names, Eir, Bjöört, Blid, and Frid, tell us that they are goddesses of lower or higher rank. Eir is an asynja of the healing art (Younger Edda, i. 114). Björt, Blid, and Frid are the dises of splendour, benevolence, and beauty. They are mighty beings, and can give aid in distress to all who worship them (Fjolsv., 40). But in the midst of this circle of dises, who surround Menglad, Svipdag also sees Aurboda (Fjolsv., 38).

Above them Svipdag sees Mimir’s tree—the world-tree (see No. 97), spreading its all-embracing branches, on which grow fruits which soothe kelisjukar konur and lighten the entrance upon terrestrial life for the children of men (Fjolsv., 22). Menglad-Freyja is, as we know, the goddess of love and fertility, and it is Frigg s and her vocation to dispose of these fruits for the purposes for which they are intended.

The Volsungasaga has preserved a record concerning these fruits, and concerning the giant-daughter who was admitted to Asgard as a maid-servant of the goddesses. A king and queen had long been married without getting any children. They beseeched the gods for an heir. Frigg heard their prayers and sent them in the guise of a crow the daughter of the giant Hrimner, a giantess who had been adopted in Asgard as Odin’s wish—may ". Hrimner’s daughter took an apple with her, and when the queen had eaten it, it was not long before she perceived that her wish would come to pass (Volsungasaga, pp. 1, 2). Hrimner’s daughter is, as we know, Gulveig-Heid.

Thus the question whether Aurboda ever dwelt in Asgard is answered in the affirmative. We have discovered her, though she is the daughter of a giant, in the circle around Menglad-Freyja, where she has occupied a subordinate position as maid-servant. At the same time we have found that Gulveig-Heid has for some time had an occupation in Asgard of precisely the same kind as that which belongs to a dis serving under the goddess of fertility. Thus the similarity between Aurboda and Gulveig-Heid is not confined to the fact that they, although giantesses, dwelt in Asgard, but they were employed there in the same manner.

The demonstration that Gulveig-Heid-Angerboda is identical with Aurboda may now be regarded as completed. Of the one as of the other it is related that she was a vala of giant-race, that she nevertheless dwelt for some time in Asgard, aiid was there employed by Frigg or Freyja in the service of fertility, and that she possessed the sword, which had formerly belonged to Frey, and by which Frey is to fall. Aurboda is Frey’s mother-in-law, consequently closely related to him ; and it must have been in behalf of a near relation that Frey and Njord demnanded satisfaction from the Asas when the latter slew Gulveig-Heid. Under such circumstances it is utterly impossible from a methodological standpoint to regard them otherwise than identical. We must consider that nearly all mythic characters are polyonomous, and that the Teutonic mythology particularly, on account of its poetics, is burdened with a highly-developed polyonomy.

But of Gulveig-Heid’s and Aurboda’s identity there are also other proofs which, for the sake of completeness, we will riot omit.

So far as the very names Gulveig and Aurboda are concerned the one can serve as a paraphrase of the other. The first part of the name Aurboda, the aur of many significations may be referred to eyrir, pl. aurar, which nieans precious metal, and is thought to be borrowed from the Latin aurum (gold). Thus Gull and Aur correspond. In tIme same manner veig in Gulveig can correspond to boda Aurboda. Veig means a fermenting liquid; boda has two significations. It can be the feminine form of bodi, meaning fer—menting water, froth, foam. No other names compounded with boa occur in Norse literature than Aurboa and Angrboda.

Ynglingasaga * (ch. 4) relates a tradition that Freyja kendi fyrst med Asum seid, that Freyja was the first to practise sorcery in Asgard. There is no doubt that the statement is correct. For we have seen that Gulveig-Heid, the sorceress and spreader of sorcery in antiquity, succeeded in getting admission to Asgard, and that Aurboda is mentioned as particularly belonging to the circle of serving dises who attended Freyja. As this giantess was so zealous in spreading her evil arts among the inhabitants of Midgard, it would be strange if the myth did not make her, after she had gained Freyja’s confidence, try to betray her into practising the same arts. Doubtless Voluspa and Saxo have reference to Guiveig~Heid-Aurboda when they say that Freyja, through some treacherous person among her attendants, was delivered into the hands of the giants.

In his historical account relating how Freyja (Syritha) was robbed from Asgard and came to the giants but was afterwards saved from their power, Saxo (Hist., 331; cp. No. 100) tells that a woman, who was secretly allied with a giant, had succeeded in ingratiating herself in her favour, and for sonie time performed the duties of a maid-servant at her borne; but this she did in order to entice her in a cunning manner away froni her safe home to a place where the giant lay in ambush and carried her away to the recesses of his mountain country. (Gigas fæminam subornat, quæ cum obtenta virginis familiaritate, ejus aliquamdiu pedissequam egisset, hanc tandem a paternis procul penatibus, quæsita callidius digres— sione, reduxit; quam ipse max irruens in arctiora montauæ erepidi— nis septa devexit.) Thus Saxo informs us that it was a woman among Freyja's attendants who betrayed her, and that this woman was allied with the giant world, which is hostile to the gods, while she held a trusted servant’s place with the goddess. Aurboda is the only woman connected with the giants in regard to whom our mythic records inform us that she occupied such a position with Freyja; and as Aurboda’s character and part, played in the

* Ynglingasaga is the opening chapters of Snorre Sturlason’s Heimskringla (see No. 7). R. B. Anderson now has in press an English translation of the whole Heimskringla, to be issued in the course of the winter (1889), in four volumes, by John C. Nimmo, London.

epic of the myth, correspond with such an act of treason, there is no reason for assuming the mere possibility, that the betrayer of Freyja may have been some one else, who is neither mentioned nor known.

With this it is important to compare Voluspa, 26, 27, which not only mentions the fact that Freyja came into the power of the giants through treachery, but also informs us how the treason was punished:

þa gengo regin oll A ráukstola, ginheilog god oc um þat gettuz hverir hefi lopt alt levi blandit eþa ett iotuns Oþs mey gefna þorr ein þar va þrungin modi, hann sialdan sitr er hann slict um fregn.

These Voluspa lines stand in Codex Regius in immediate connection with the above-quoted strophes which speak of GulveigHeid and of the war caused by her between the Asas and Vans. They inform us that the gods assembled to hold a solemn counsel to find out "who had filled all the air with evil," or "who had delivered Freyja to the race of giants" ; and that the person found guilty was at once slain by Thor, who grew most angry.

Now if this person is Gulveig-Aurboda, then it follows that she received her death-blow from Thor’s hammer, before the Asas made in common the unsuccessful attempt to change her body into ashes. We also find elsewhere in our mythic records that an exceedingly dangerous woman met with precisely this fate. There she is called Hyrrokin. A strophe by Thorbjorn Disarskald, preserved in the Younger Edda, states that Hyrrokin was one of the giantesses slain by Thor. But the very appellation Hyrrokin, which must be an epithet of a giantess known by seine other more common name, indicates that some effort worthy of being remembered in the myth had been made to burn her, but that the effort resulted in her being smoked (rökt) rather than that she was burnt; for the epithet Hyrrokin means the "fire-smoked ". For those familiar with the contents of the myth, this epithet was regarded as plain enough to indicate who was meant. If it is not, therefore, to be looked upon as an unhappy and misleading epithet, it must refer to the thrice in vain burnt Gulveig. All that we learn about Hyrrokin confirms her identity with Aurboda. In the symnbolic-allegorical work of art, which toward the close of the tenth century decorated a hall at Hjardarholt, and of which I shall give a fuller account elsewhere, the storm which from the land side carried Balder’s ship out on the sea is represented by the giantess Hyrrokin. In the same capacity of storm-giantess carrying sailors out upon the ocean appears Gymer’s wife, Aurboda, in a poem by Refr:

Færir björn, þar er bára brestr, undinna festa, Opt i Ægis kjopta úrsvöl Gymis völva.

"Gymer’s ancient-cold vala often carries the ship amid breaking billows into the jaws of Ægir." Gymer, Aurboda’s husband, represents in the physical interpretation of the myth the east wind coming from the Ironwood. From the other side of Eystrasalt (the Baltic) Gymer sings his song (Ynglingasaga, 36) ; and the same gale belongs to Aurboda, for Ægir, into whose jaws she drives the ships, is the great open western ocean. That Aurboda represents the gale from the east finds its natural explanation in her identity with Angerboda "the old," who dwells in the Ironwood in the uttermost east. "Austr byr hin alldna i iarnviþi (Völusp.).

The result of the investigation is that Gullveig-Heidr, Aurboda, and Angrboa are different names for the different hypostases of the thrice-born and thrice-burnt one, and that Hyrrokin, "the firesmoked," is an epithet common to all these hypostases.

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