NOTES TO THE FIFTEENTH CANTO.
Specimen of the original.
Da de höje Valhals Guder
Blomstred end i Oestens Land,
Fiernt i Asien paa Bierget,
Naer det skiönne Ginistan:
For de hid til Norden droge,
Mod den kolde Klippeblok,
Hvor de sloge
Jetters Haer og Dvaerges Flok.
The metre I have adopted for my translation of this Canto is of my own invention; it may be thought fantastic, but in its trochaic form it has something of the march of the original. I leave the first, third, and fifth line unrhymed, with a double close.
[55] Vaner: see the article Vaner and Vanaheim in the Alphabetical Catalogue.
[56] Ginnistan; by Ginnistan is probably meant Persia or Armenia. My friend Dr. Constancio suggests to me, that the word may be derived from Zend, the actual name of a tribe of Curds, and signifying in Persian life, living, and figuratively vigorous. The word Zend, with the addition of stan (country, in Persian), comes very near the word Ginnistan.
[57] The circumstance of Niord being given as a hostage to the Asar pleads in favour of the hypothesis I have already given, namely, that Niord and his children Frey and Freya were Assyrian or Persian divinities, adopted by the Asar, and incorporated in their religion. Frey, the son of Niord, typifies the sun at the winter solstice, and the festivities of the new year in the pagan time were instituted to do him honour. His father Niord presides over the winds and waves; but Balder also typifies the sun (at its highest elevation), and Ægir is the god of the sea. The fact is, that in the Scandinavian mythology there are two sun-gods and two gods of the sea. The explanation of this seeming incongruity is not difficult. Among the Asar, Balder was the sun god, and Ægir the god of the sea; but among the Vaner, Niord was the god of the winds and waves, Frey typified the sun, and his sister Freya the moon. When the political alliance took place between the Asar and the Vaner, the former adopted some of the divinities of the latter, and in consequence of this amalgamation, Niord, Frey and Freya received suitable posts in the Gothic pantheon. It is remarkable, that among the ancient Egyptians the sun was called Phré. Among the Greeks, Bacchus often typified the sun, and by the Romans he was called Liber, which has exactly the same meaning as the word Frey, viz. free.
[58] By Niord’s drying up marshes and dispelling vapours may be meant the salubrious effects of the north wind.
[59] Odur; this description will remind the classical reader of Bacchus.
It seems to me that the appellation Goth was not known in Scandinavia previous to the invasion of the Asar, and that these last assumed the name of Goths (good and brave men), when they introduced their religion into that country. This idea leads me also to surmise, that as long as the Asar remained in Asia, the name Hrimthusser (frost-giant), and not Jetter or Jotun, was applied to the evil spirits of their mythology; and that it was not until after their grand immigration into Scandinavia, under the command of the historical Odin, that the term Jetter or Jotun (which was the national appellation of the aborigines of Scandinavia) was, in consequence of the long and bitter wars between the Asar and Jetter, and of the national hatred arising therefrom, applied by the Asar to those malevolent spirits, who, as they supposed, assisted their enemies, the Jetter. The self-love of all nations leads them to assume, that they are the favourites of the good gods, and that the evil spirits are the abettors, instigators, and coadjutors of their enemies; and even in our time, as has been wittily remarked by Washington Irving, a number of the good sort of people in England, during the war against revolutionary France, thought that somehow or other God Almighty was on the side of the English government. As a further confirmation of my conjecture that the word Goth was unknown to the Scandinavian peninsula, until introduced there by the Asar, I cite the following passage from a Saga, written in the Icelandic or ancient Scandinavian tongue:
En dha voru dhessi lönd er Asia menn bygdu köllud Godlönd, en fólkid Godjod. Odin ok hans synir voru slórum vitrir ok fjölkunnigir, fagrir at álitum, og sterkir át afli. Margir adrir i dheirra ætt voru miklir afburdbarmenn, medh ymisligum algerleik, og nokkura af dheim tóku menn til at blóta og trúa á, ok kölludhu godh sin.
Translated thus:
Then this land, which Asia’s people took possession of, was called Godland, and the people Godjod. Odin and his sons were very wise and skilled in many things, fair in aspect, and strong limbed. Many of their race were men of great strength and of divers perfections, and the people began to worship some of them, and call them their gods.