Thinking thatchers, etc. Literally transposed, this passage would read: Reflecting men let shields (literally Svafner’s, that is Odin’s roof-trees,) glisten on the back. They were smitten with stones. To let shields glisten on the back, is said of men who throw their shields on their backs to protect themselves against those who pursue the flying host.
Har means the High One, Jafnhar the Equally High One, and Thride the Third One. By these three may be meant the three chief gods of the North: Odin, Thor and Frey; or they may be simply an expression of the Eddic trinity. This trinity is represented in a number of ways: by Odin, Vile and Ve in the creation of the world, and by Odin, Hœner and Loder in the creation of Ask and Embla, the first human pair. The number three figures extensively in all mythological systems. In the pre-chaotic state we have Muspelheim, Niflheim and Ginungagap. Fornjot had three sons: Hler, Loge and Kare. There are three norns: Urd, Verdande and Skuld. There are three fountains: Hvergelmer, Urd’s and Mimer’s; etc. (See Norse Mythology, pp. 183, 195, 196.)
Har being Odin, Har’s Hall will be Valhal. You will not come out from this hall unless you are wiser. In the lay of Vafthrudner, of the Elder Edda, we have a similar challenge, where Vafthrudner says to Odin:
Out will you not come
From our halls
Unless I find you to be wiser (than I am).
CHAPTER III.
This chapter gives twelve names of Odin. In the Eddas and in the skaldic lays he has in all nearly two hundred names. His most common name is Odin (in Anglo-Saxon and in Old High German Wodan), and this is thought by many to be of the same origin as our word god. The other Old Norse word for god, tivi, is identical in root with Lat. divus; Sansk. dwas; Gr. Διός (Ζεύς); and this is again connected with Tyr, the Tivisco in the Germania of Tacitus. (See Max Müller’s Lectures on the Science of Language, 2d series, p. 425). Paulus Diakonus states that Wodan, or Gwodan, was worshiped by all branches of the Teutons. Odin has also been sought and found in the Scythian Zalmoxis, in the Indian Buddha, in the Celtic Budd, and in the Mexican Votan. Zalmoxis, derived from the Gr. Ζαλμός,[A] helmet, reminds us of Odin as the helmet-bearer (Grimm, Gesch. der Deutschen Sprache). According to Humboldt, a race in Guatemala, Mexico, claim to be descended from Votan (Vues des Cordillères, 1817, I, 208). This suggests the question whether Odin’s name may not have been brought to America by the Norse discoverers in the 10th and 11th centuries, and adopted by some of the native races. In the Lay of Grimner (Elder Edda) the following names of Odin are enumerated:
Grim is my name
And Ganglere,
Herjan and Helmet-bearer,
Thekk and Thride,
Thud and Ud,
Helblinde and Har,
Sad and Svipal,
And Sanngetal,
Herteit and Hnikar,
Bileyg and Baleyg,
Bolverk, Fjolner,
Grim and Grimner,
Glapsvid and Fjolsvid,
Sidhot, Sidskeg,
Sigfather, Hnikud,
Alfather, Valfather,
Atrid and Farmatyr.
With one name
Was I never named
When I fared ’mong the peoples.