FOOTNOTES:
[5] Elia.
[6] Unless indeed we are to except a figure upon the Ephesian drum (Artemisium) now in the British Museum, which some have imagined to represent Thanatos.
[7] Hel is from the Icl. helja “to conceal.”
[8] Isaiah xxxviii. 18, 19; cf. also Genesis xxxvii. 35; 1 Samuel xxviii. 19. Sheol is misrendered “grave” in our version. It means the place of the dead, not of bodies only.
[9] The fact that the sun dies every day militates against his claim to the rank of a god: otherwise he would probably always receive the greatest meed of worship. As it is, he is often worshipped rather as a hero or demigod than a true immortal.
[10] Fick. “Verg. Wörterbuch der I.-G. Sp.” s.v. mara.
[11] Hesperides. They are, however, called the daughters of Night by Hesiod and others.
[12] Πόντος is from the same root as the Skr. patha, a path, pfad, &c. One might suppose from this that the Greeks were the first adventurers upon the deep waters. While the other Aryan folks called the sea “a death,” they called it a “road.”
[13] There can be no doubt that the cosmology of the Eddas is to some extent infected by the source from which we derive it. The picture of earth, with its mountain Asgard and its surrounding sea, is nearly exactly the picture of Iceland.
[14] So Poseidôn, the god of the sea, is the earth-shaker; earthquakes being apparently attributed to the water under the earth.
[15] Weber in Chambr., 1020.
[16] “The sounding,” from gialla, to sound (yell).
[17] Chaucer.
[18] Κίρκος (whence Κίρκη) is given as both hawk and wolf in L. & S. It is most likely from a root krik, meaning to make a grating sound, and therefore probably applied originally to the bird (cf. our nightjar). The Latin quercus seems to be from the same root—from its rustling? We may compare Circe with Charôn, which means “an eagle.”
[19] From σχερός.
[20] Od. vi. 204, sqq.
[21] “Earthly Paradise.”
[22] Od. viii. 562.
[23] Justin Martyr identifies the gardens of Alcinoüs with Paradise. “Cohort. ad Græc.” xxix.
[24] Od. xiii. 79, 88.
[25] “Rheinisches Museum für Philologie,” vol. i. N.S. p. 219. Die Homerische Phäaken.
[26] Hermödr (heer-muth, kriegsmuth) was originally one of the names of Odin, and therefore originally the wind. We easily see the connection between the rushing wind, and the battle’s rage. Hermes is likewise the wind, and means “the rusher” (ὁρμάω, and cf. Sârameyas of the Vedas).
[27] Edda Snorra, Dæmisaga, 49.
[28] Procopius, Bel. Goth. iv. The wall identifies the island with Britain.
[29] The Iranian religion, as it has come down to us, is the historical one founded by Zarathustra, who swept away most of the traces of the old Aryan faith. There is difficulty, therefore, in obtaining the evidence of a belief which was shared by the old Persians.
κὰδ’ δ’ ἔπεσ’ ἐν κόνιῃσι μακὼν, ἀπὸ δ’ ἔπτατο θυμός.—Od. x. 163.
οὔτε τίς, οὖν μόι νοῦσος ἐπήλυθεν, ἥτε μάλιστα
τηκεδόνι στυγερῇ μελέων ἐξείλετο θυμόν.—Od. xi. 200.
[31] We are here speaking of beliefs which sprang originally from the days of burial in the earth. Of these were all that class which included the journey of the soul.
[32] Vrhadâranayaka. Ed. Pol. iii 4-7.
[33] Fouque.
[34] Sale’s Koran, Introd. p. 91. The Persian bridge was called Chinvat.
[35] See Edda den Eldra, Grimnismâl 44, and Edda Snorra, D. 15. That Bifröst did not tremble through weakness we may gather from the fact that it is the “best of bridges,” “the strongest of all bridges” (Simrock, D.M. 28), and that it will only be broken at the day of judgment.
[36] By E. Keary: Evening Hours, vol. iii.