[602] Jaffé, Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum, III 71 ff.: neque enim contraria eis de ipsorum, quamuis falsorum, deorum genealogia astruere debes.... utrum autem adhuc generare deos deasque alios aliasque suspicantur? uel, si iam non generant, quando uel cur cessauerunt a concubitu et partu; si autem adhuc generant, infinitus iam deorum effectus numerus est, et quis tam inter tot tantosque potentior sit, incertum mortalibus est; et ualde cauendum, ne in potentiorem quis offendat.
[603] This explanation would not hold of course if Fosite is to be identified with Forseti the son of Balder. But the identification seems to me extremely problematical.
[604] Cf. Bede, H. E., I 15: Voden, de cuius stirpe multarum prouinciarum regium genus originem duxit. From these genealogies and Bp Daniel's letter (quoted above) it would seem that such compositions (including theogonies) were much in vogue among the heathen Teutonic peoples in the period immediately following the Heroic Age. It is to the same period that I would ascribe the development of the theology of the Edda, though I do not mean to suggest that the poems which have come down to us were composed then.
[605] There is an unfortunate ambiguity about the history of the word Áss. In Old Norse it is applied both to Thor and Othin, as well as other gods, while Aesir (pl.) denotes the gods collectively and Ásgarðr their home (quite distinct from Valhalla). In Gothic however the same word (pl. ansis) seems to have meant a dead hero (cf. p. [172], note). If this was its original meaning—a view somewhat favoured by Skr. asu, Av. anhu, 'spirit,'—we must conclude that the terms Ásgarðr and Aesir (also Áss, as applied to Thor) have undergone a complete change of meaning in Old Norse. Such a change could be explained satisfactorily by the (poetic) inclusion of θεοὶ οὐράνιοι and θεοὶ νέρτεροι in one pantheon; but in that case the doctrine of Valhalla, or something very much like it, must be of great antiquity. This explanation is perhaps favoured by the popular use of Aasgaardsreia for the Wild Hunt in Norway.
[606] Cap. quae de partibus Saxoniae constituta sunt, No. VII (Mon. Germ., Leg. I 49). Whether the practice was common I do not know. References to the cult of manes occur in the same Capitula, as well as in the Indiculus Superstitionum, etc.
[607] Cremation is sometimes accompanied by a cult of the dead, e.g. among the heathen Prussians; cf. Matthias a Michov (Grynaeus, Novus Orbis, etc., Basel 1537, p. 520): Habebant praeterea in syluis praefatis focos, in familias et domos distinctos, in quibus omnibus charorum et familiarium cadauera cum equis, sellis et uestimentis potioribus incendebant. locabant etiam ad focos huiusmodi ex subere facta sedilia, in quibus escas ex pasta in casei modum praeparatas deponebant, medonemque focis infundebant, ea credulitate illusi quod mortuorum suorum animae quorum illic combusta fuerant corpora nocte uenirent escaque se exsatiarent. Inhumation however was also practised by the same nation; cf. Erasmus Stella (Grynaeus, op. cit., p. 582): Statuit (sc. Viduutus) et dies natalitios et funera pari modo celebranda, mutuis scilicet commessationibus et compotationibus, tum lusu et cantu, absque moerore cum summa hilaritate et gaudio, utque alterius uitae spem prae se ferrent. illo saltem ostenderunt quod exutos spiritu armatos uestitosque ac magna supellectilis parte circumposita humarunt. quo more usque nunc sepeliuntur, etc. Both these notices of course refer to a late period—the fifteenth century.
[608] Cf. p. [397] f. We may refer also to the funeral of Sigurðr Hringr, as described in Arngrim's epitome of the lost Skiöldunga Saga, cap. 26 (Aarbøger f. nord. Oldkynd., 1894, p. 132): Hinc post acerrimam pugnam ... Siguardus etiam male uulneratus est. qui, Alfsola funere allato, magnam nauim mortuorum cadaueribus oneratam solus uiuorum conscendit, seque et mortuam Alfsolam in puppi collocans nauim pice, bitumine et sulphure incendi iubet: atque sublatis uelis in altum, ualidis a continente impellentibus uentis, proram dirigit, simulque manus sibi uiolentas intulit; sese tot facinorum patratorem, tantorum regnorum possessorem, more maiorum suorum, regali pompa Odinum regem (id est inferos) inuisere malle quam inertis senectutis infirmitatem perpeti, alacri animo ad socios in littore antea relictos praefatus, etc.
[609] In the glossaries the word is used to translate Eurynis, Herinis (i.e. Erinys), Tisifone, Allecto, Bellona. The first three cases occur in the Corpus glossary; hence the suggestion that the word walcyrge is borrowed from Norse is inadmissible.
[610] From the inscription of Rök it appears probable that the conception of Valkyries found in the Edda was familiar in the south-east of Sweden before the end of the ninth century. This is by no means the only point in which the same inscription bears witness to a highly developed interest in antiquarian lore.
[611] An interesting analogy is furnished by the Servian belief that sunstroke is due to arrows shot by Vile (cf. p. [317], note; and Krauss, Slav. Volkforschungen, p. 372 ff.).