Swanmaids. (Page [51].)
See Hartland, Science of Fairy-Tales.
The Waverlowe. (Page [51].)
Dr. Frazer (Golden Bough) gives instances of ritual marriages connected with the midsummer fires. For Svipdag and Menglad, see Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c., which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the Valhalla myth.
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