[699]. Perhaps the great significance of the name arose from this phantasy.
[700]. Grimm mentions the legend that Siegfried was suckled by a doe. (Compare Hiawatha’s first deed.)
[701]. Compare Grimm’s “Mythology.” Mime or Mîmir is a gigantic being of great wisdom, “a very old Nature God,” with whom the Norse gods associate. Later fables make of him a demon and a skilful smith (closest relation to Wieland). Just as Wotan obtained advice from the wise woman (compare the quotation from Julius Cæsar about the German matron), so does Odin go to the brook of Mîmir in which wisdom and judgment lie hidden, to the spiritual mother (mother-imago). There he requests a drink (drink of immortality), but no sooner does he receive it than he sacrifices his eye to the well (death of the sun in the sea). The well of Mîmir points undoubtedly to the mother significance of Mîmir. Thus Mîmir gets possession of Odin’s other eye. In Mîmir, the mother (wise giant) and the embryo (dwarf, subterranean sun, Harpocrates) is condensed; likewise, as mother, he is the source of wisdom and art. (“Mother-imago” therefore may be translated as “phantasy” under certain circumstances.)
[702]. The magic sleep is also present in the Homeric celebration of the Hierosgamos. (See above.)
[703]. This is proved by Siegfried’s words:
“Through furious fire
To thee have I fared;
Nor birny nor buckler
Guarded my breast:
The flames have broken