[370] Cf. P. Sébillot, 1886, p. 348.
[371] Cf. Harriet Maxwell Converse: Iroquois Myths and Legends. Education Department Bulletin, No. 437, Albany, N.Y., December 1908, pp. 31 f.
[372] My attention has been drawn to this by Mr. Gunnar Olsen. Similar myths are found in Japan [cf. D. Brauns, Japanische Märchen und Sagen, 1885, pp. 146 ff.].
[373] Grönl. hist. Mind., i. pp. 144 f., 157 ff.
[374] This belongs to the same cycle of ideas as that of the dead rising from their graves or from the lower regions at night, but being obliged to go down again at dawn, or of trolls having to conceal themselves before the sun rises. In the same way, too, the fallen Helge Hundingsbane comes to Sigrun and sleeps with her in the mound; but when the flush of day comes he has to ride back to the west of “Vindhjelms” bridge, before Salgovne awakes. It has been pointed out above ([p. 371]) that the Phæacians of the Odyssey sail at night.
[375] According to the “Guta-saga” of the thirteenth century.
[376] Cf. Moltke Moe’s communications in A. Helland, Nordlands Amt, 1907, ii. pp. 512 ff. In Brinck’s Descriptio Loufodiæ [1676, p. ii] it is stated that the mythical land of Utröst in Nordland was called “Huldeland.”
[377] Cf. F. Lot, “Romania,” 1898, p. 530. Moltke Moe has also communicated to me this curious tale.
[378] Cf. P. Crofton Croker, 1828, ii. p. 259 f.
[379] Cf. “Lageniensis,” 1870, pp. 114 ff., 294; Joyce, 1879, p. 408. V. Bérard [1902, i. p. 286] explains the Roman name “Ispania” (Spain) as coming from a Semitic (Phœnician) root “sapan” (== hide, cover) denoting “the isle of the hidden one,” which he thinks originally meant Calypso’s isle; this he seeks to locate on the African coast near Gibraltar. The explanation seems very doubtful; but if there be anything in it, it is remarkable that Spain, the land rich in silver and gold, should have a name that recalls the huldre-lands (lands of the hidden ones).