[111] This is the Younger, or Prose Edda, of Snorro (Dæmisaga 49), not that called the Edda of Sæmund—the Elder Edda. Undoubtedly the myth of Balder is largely infused with Christian elements.
[112] Hel, in Norse mythology, is a person, the regent of Helheim. Just in the same way Hades is in Homer always a god, never a place. The idea concerning Helheim seems to have been that all who were not slain in battle went to its dark shore.
[113] i.e. Dokkr, dark. She sits in a cave, because both day and night are imagined as coming from a cave. So Shelley sings—
‘Swiftly walk over the western cave,
Spirit of Night,
Out of thy misty eastern cave.’
[114] Or, strictly speaking, the Brahmana of the Yagur Veda. The Brahmana is the scholiast (as it were) or targum of the original text. Urvasi is Ushas, the Dawn.
[115] Morris, Earthly Paradise: Cupid and Psyche.
[116] I have no doubt there is another element in all these stories, not inconsistent with but complementary to the first—namely, what I will call a mystery element connected with a descent to the world of shades, such as formed the staple of the Eleusinian mysteries. Thus I think Pururavas is the hidden sun (the dark Osiris as it were). He might call himself Pururavas under the earth as Prince Hatt is Prince Hatt under the earth. This would explain how the story got to be connected with Psyche (the Soul). It may be said, too, that there is often a mystery element connected with such notions as the concealment of names, etc.
[117] Connected with Lêthê, concealment or forgetfulness, as with Lêto, the mother of Apollo. All signify the darkness.
[118] See last chapter, p. 252. Endymion is found by Artemis sleeping in a cave of Latmos.
[119] See Baring-Gould, Curious Myths, etc.