FOOTNOTES:
[1] Viktor Rydberg styles his work Researches in Germanic Mythology, but after consultation with the Publishers, the Translator decided to use the word Teutonic instead of Germanic both in the title and in the body of the work. In English, the words German, Germany, and Germanic are ambiguous. The Scandinavians and Germans have the words Tyskland, tysk, Deutschland, deutsch, when they wish to refer to the present Germany, and thus it is easy for them to adopt the words German and Germanisk to describe the Germanic or Teutonic peoples collectively. The English language applies the above word Dutch not to Germany, but to Holland, and it is necessary to use the words German and Germany in translating deutsch, Deutschland, tysk, and Tyskland. Teutonic has already been adopted by Max Müller and other scholars in England and America as a designation of all the kindred branches sprung from one and the same root, and speaking dialects of the same original tongue. The words Teuton, Teutonic, and Teutondom also have the advantage over German and Germanic that they are of native growth and not borrowed from a foreign language. In the following pages, therefore, the word Teutonic will be used to describe Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxons, &c., collectively, while German will be used exclusively in regard to Germany proper.—Translator.
[2] Compare O. Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte (1883).
[3] As much land as can be ploughed in a day.
[4] A translation of the Younger or Prose Edda was edited by R. B. Anderson and published by S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago, in 1881.
"Mennor der erste was genant,
Dem diutische rede got tet bekant."
Later on in this work we shall discuss the traditions of the Mannussaga found in Scandinavia and Germany.
[6] Saturday is in the North called Löverdag, Lördag—that is, Laugardag=bathday.—Tr.
[7] The snow-skate, used so extensively in the north of Europe, is called Ski in the Norse, and I have taken the liberty of introducing this word here and spelling it phonetically—skee, pl. skees. The words snow-shoes, snow-skates, hardly describe sufficiently these skees used by the Finns, Norsemen, and Icelanders. Compare the English word skid, the drag applied to a coach-wheel.—Tr.
[8] Geijer has partly indicated its significance in Svea Rikes Häfder, where he says: "The tradition anent Sceaf is remarkable, as it evidently has reference to the introduction of agriculture, and shows that it was first introduced in the most southern part of Scandinavia."
[9] The Beowulf poem has the name Scedeland (Scandia): compare the name Skâdan in De origine Longobardorum. Ethelwerd writes: "Ipse Skef cum uno dromone advectus est in insulam Oceani, quæ dicitur Scani, armis circumdatus," &c.
[10] Matthæus Westmonast. translates this name with frumenti manipulus, a sheaf.
[11] The first nine books of Saxo form a labyrinth constructed out of myths related as history, but the thread of Ariadne seems to be wanting. On this account it might be supposed that Saxo had treated the rich mythical materials at his command in an arbitrary and unmethodical manner; and we must bear in mind that these mythic materials were far more abundant in his time than they were in the following centuries, when they were to be recorded by the Icelandic authors. This supposition is, however, wrong. Saxo has examined his sources methodically and with scrutiny, and has handled them with all due reverence, when he assumed the desperate task of constructing, by the aid of the mythic traditions and heroic poems at hand, a chronicle spanning several centuries—a chronicle in which fifty to sixty successive rulers were to be brought upon the stage and off again, while myths and heroic traditions embrace but few generations, and most mythic persons continue to exist through all ages. In the very nature of the case, Saxo was obliged, in order to solve this problem, to put his material on the rack; but a thorough study of the above-mentioned books of his history shows that he treated the delinquent with consistency. The simplest of the rules he followed was to avail himself of the polyonomy with which the myths and heroic poems are overloaded, and to do so in the following manner:
Assume that a person in the mythic or heroic poems had three or four names or epithets (he may have had a score). We will call this person A, and the different forms of his name A', A'', A'''. Saxo's task of producing a chain of events running through many centuries forced him to consider the three names A', A'', and A''' as originally three persons, who had performed certain similar exploits, and therefore had, in course of time, been confounded with each other, and blended by the authors of myths and stories into one person A. As best he can, Saxo tries to resolve this mythical product, composed, in his opinion, of historical elements, and to distribute the exploits attributed to A between A', A'', and A'''. It may also be that one or more of the stories applied to A were found more or less varied in different sources. In such cases he would report the same stories with slight variations about A', A'', and A'''. The similarities remaining form one important group of indications which he has furnished to guide us, but which can assure us that our investigation is in the right course only when corroborated by indications belonging to other groups, or corroborated by statements preserved in other sources.
But in the events which Saxo in this manner relates about A', A'', and A''', other persons are also mentioned. We will assume that in the myths and heroic poems these have been named B and C. These, too, have in the songs of the skalds had several names and epithets. B has also been called B', B'', B'''. C has also been styled C', C'', C'''. Out of this one subordinate person B, Saxo, by the aid of the abundance of names, makes as many subordinate persons—B', B'', and B'''—as he made out of the original chief person A—that is, the chief persons A', A'', and A'''. Thus also with C, and in this way we got the following analogies:
A' is to B' and C' as
A'' B'' C'' and as
A''' B''' C'''.
By comparing all that is related concerning these nine names, we are enabled gradually to form a more or less correct idea of what the original myth has contained in regard to A, B, and C. If it then happens—as is often the case—that two or more of the names A', B', C', &c., are found in Icelandic or other documents, and there belong to persons whose adventures are in some respects the same, and in other respects are made clearer and more complete, by what Saxo tells about A', A'', and A''', &c., then it is proper to continue the investigation in the direction thus started. If, then, every new step brings forth new confirmations from various sources, and if a myth thus restored easily dovetails itself into an epic cycle of myths, and there forms a necessary link in the chain of events, then the investigation has produced the desired result.
An aid in the investigation is not unfrequently the circumstance that the names at Saxo's disposal were not sufficient for all points in the above scheme. We then find analogies which open for us, so to speak, short cuts—for instance, as follows:
A' is to B' and C' as
A'' B' C'' and as
A''' B'' C'.
The parallels given in the text above are a concrete example of the above scheme. For we have seen—
A=Halfdan, trebled in A'=Gram, A''=Halfdan Berggram, A'''=Halfdan
Borgarson.
B=Ebbo (Ebur, Ibor, Jöfurr), trebled in B'=Henricus, B''=Ebbo,
B'''=Sivarus.
C doubled in C'=Svipdag, and C''=Ericus.
[12] Sol is feminine in the Teutonic tongues.—Tr.
[13] That some one of the gods has worn a helmet with such a crown can be 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.
[14] Elsewhere it shall be shown that the heroes mentioned in the middle age poetry under the names Valdere, Walther, Waltharius 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).
[15] Urd, the chief goddess of fate. See the treatise "Mythen om Under-jorden."
[16] Dayling = bright son of day or light.
[17] Proofs of Thjasse's original identity with Volund are given in Nos. 113-115.
[18] In Völuspa the wood is called both Jarnvidr, Gaglvidr (Cod. Reg.), and Galgvidr (Cod. Hauk.). 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 Chalkos. = copper, bronze.
[19] In Bragarædur's pseudo-mythic account of the Skaldic mead (Younger Edda, 216 ff.) the name Fjalarr also appears. In regard to the value of this account, see the investigation in No. 89.
[20] Ynglingasaga is the opening chapters of Snorre Sturlason's Heimskringla.
[21] The author of Bragarædur in the Younger Edda has understood this passage to mean that the Asas, when they saw Thjasse approaching, carried out a lot of shavings, which were kindled (!)
[22] In the same poem the elf-artist, Dáinn, and the "dwarf"-artist, Dvalinn, are symbolised as stags, the wanderer Ratr (see below) as a squirrel, the wolf-giant Grafvitner's sons as serpents, the bridge Bifrost as a fish (see No. 93), &c. Fortunately for the comprehension of our mythic records such symbolising is confined to a few strophes in the poem named, and these strophes appear to have belonged originally to an independent song which made a speciality of that sort of symbolism, and to have been incorporated in Grimnismal in later times.
[23] Filii Gram, Guthormus et Hadingus, quorum alterum Gro, alterum Signe enixa est, Svipdagero Daniam obtinente, per educatorem suum Brache nave Svetiam deportati, Vagnophto et Haphlio gigantibus non solum alendi, verum etiam defensandi traduntur (Saxo Hist., 34).
[24] The form Loki is also duplicated by the form Lokr. The latter is preserved in the sense of "effeminated man," found in myths concerning Loke. Compare the phrase "veykr Lokr" with "hinn veyki Loki."
[25] The crooked sword, as it appears from several passages in the sagas, has long been regarded by our heathen ancestors as a foreign form of weapon, used by the giants, but not by the gods or by the heroes of Midgard.
[26] Compare Fornald., ii. 118, where the hero of the saga cries to Gusi, who comes running after him with "2 hreina ok vagn"—
Skrid thu af kjalka,
Kyrr thu hreina,
seggr sidförull
seg hvattu heitir!
[27] Compare the double forms Trigo, Thrygir; Ivarus, Yvarus; Sibbo, Sybbo; Siritha, Syritha; Sivardus, Syvardus; Hibernia, Hybernia; Isora, Ysora.
[28] Deseruit eum (Hun) quoque Uggerus vates, vir ætatis incognitæ et supra humanum terminum prolixæ; qui Frothonem transfugæ titulo petens quidquid ab Hunis parabatur edocuit (Hist., 238).
[29] Compare the passage, Eirikr konungr fylkti svá lidi sinu, at rani (the swine-snout) var á framan á fylkinganni, ok lukt allt útan med skjaldbjorg, (Fornm., xi. 304), with the passage quoted in this connection: hildingr fylkti Hamalt lidi miklu.
[30] The saga of Sigurd Fafnersbane, which absorbed materials from all older sagas, has also incorporated this episode. On a sea-journey Sigurd takes on board a man who calls himself Hnikarr (a name of Odin). He advises him to "fylkja Hamalt" (Sig. Fafn., ii. 16-23).
[31] In nearly all the names of members of this family, Hild- or -brand, appears as a part of the compound word. All that the names appear to signify is that their owners belong to the Hilding race. Examples:—
[32] Compare in Asmund Kæmpebane's saga the words of the dying hero:
thik Drott of bar
af Danmorku
en mik sjálfan
á Svithiodu.
[33] The texts of Jordanes often omit the aspirate and write Eruli for Heruli, &c. In regard to the name-form Amal, Closs remarks, in his edition of 1886: Amal, sic, Ambr. cum Epit. et Pall, nisi quod hi Hamal aspirate.
[34] Cujus transeundi cupidos revocavit, docens, eo alveo humana a monstrosis rerum secrevisse naturam, nec mortalibus ultra fas esse vestigiis.
[35] Inde digressis dolia septem zonis aureis circumligata panduntur, quibus pensiles ex argento circuli crebros inseruerant nexus.
[36] The word biti= a tooth (cp. bite) becomes in the composition leggbiti, the name of a sword.
[37] Prodcuntibus murus aditu transcensuque difficilis obsistebat, quem femina (the subterranean goddess who is Hadding's guide) nequicquam transilire conata cum ne corrugati quidem exilitate proficeret (Saxo, Hist. Dan., i. 51).