A synonym of Heimdal's epithet Stigandi, "the traveller," is Rati, "the traveller," from rata, "to travel," "to move about." Very strangely, this verb (originally vrata, Goth. vrâton, to travel, make a journey) can be traced to an ancient Teutonic word which meant to turn or twist, or something of the sort (Fick, Wörterb., iii. 294). And, so far as the noun Rati is concerned, this signification has continued to flourish in the domain of mythology after it long seems to have been extinct in the domain of language. Havamál (106), Grimnersmal (32), and Bragarædur testify each in its own way that the mythical name Rati was connected with a boring activity. In Havamál "Rate's mouth" gnaws the tunnel through which Odin, in the guise of an eagle, flies away with the mead-treasure concealed in the "deep dales" at Fjalar's under the roots of the world-tree. In the allegorical Grimnersmal strophe it is "Rate's tooth" (Ratatoskr) who lets the mead-drinking foe of the gods near the root of the world-tree find out what the eagle in the top of the world-tree (Odin) resolves and carries out in regard to the same treasure. In Bragarædur the name is given to the gimlet itself which produced the connection between Odin's world and Fjalar's halls. The gimlet has here received the name of the boring "traveller," of him who is furnished with "golden teeth." Hence there are good reasons for assuming that in the epic of the myth it was Heimdal-Gullintanne himself whose fire-gimlet helped Odin to fly away with his precious booty. In Rigveda Agni plays the same part. The "tongue of Agni" has the same task there as "Rate's mouth" in our Norse records. The sacred mead of the liquids of nourishment was concealed in the womb of the mountain with the Dasyus, hostile to the world; but Agni split the mountain open with his tongue, his ray of light penetrated into the darkness where the liquids of nourishment were preserved, and through him they were brought to the light of day, after Trita (in some passages of Rigveda identical with Vata) had slain a giant monster and found the "cows of the son of the work-master" (cp. Rigveda, v. 14, 4; viii. 61, 4-8; x. 8, 6-9). "The cows of the son of the work-master" is a paraphrase for the saps of nourishment. In the Teutonic mythology there is also "a son of the work-master," who is robbed of the mead. Fjalar is a son of Surt, whose character as an ancient artist is evident from what is stated in Nos. 53 and 89.
By friction Mataricvan brought Agni out of the maternal wombs in which he was concealed as an embryo of light and warmth. Heimdal was born to life in a similar manner. His very place of nativity indicates this. His mothers have their abodes vid jardar thraum (Hyndl., 35) near the edge of the earth, on the outer rim of the earth, and that is where they gave him life (báru thann man vid jardar thraum). His mothers are giantesses (iotna meyjar), and nine in number. We have already found giantesses, nine in number, mentioned as having their activity on the outer edge of the earth—namely, those who with the möndull, the handle, turn the vast friction-mechanism, the world-mill of Mundilfore. They are the níu brúdir of Eyludr, "the Isle-grinder" mentioned by Snæbjorn (see above). These nine giant-maids, who along the outer zone of the earth (fyrir jordar skauti) push the mill's sweep before themselves and grind the coasts of the islands, are the same nine giant-maids who on the outer zone of the earth gave birth to Heimdal, the god of the friction-fire. Hence one of Heimdal's mothers is in Hyndluljod called Angeyja, "she who makes the islands closer," and another one is called Eyrgjafa, "she who gives sandbanks." Mundilföri, who is the father of Sol and Mane, and has the care of the motions of the starry heavens is accordingly also, though in another sense, the father of Heimdal the pure, holy fire to whom the glittering objects in the skies must naturally be regarded as akin.
In Hyndluljod (37) Heimdal's nine giant-mothers are named: Gjálp, Greip, Eistla, Eyrgjafa, Ulfrun, Angeyja, Imdr, Atla, Járnsaxa. The first two are daughters of the fire-giant Geirrod (Younger Edda, i. 288). To fire refers also Imdr, from ím, embers. Two of the names, Angeyja and Eyrgjafa, as already shown, indicate the occupation of these giantesses in connection with the world-mill. This is presumably also the case with Járnsaxa, "she who crushes the iron." The iron which our heathen fathers worked was produced from the sea- and swamp-iron mixed with sand and clay, and could therefore properly be regarded as a grist of the world-mill.
Heimdal's antithesis in all respects, and therefore also his constant opponent in the mythological epic, is Loke, he too a fire-being, but representing another side of this element. Natural agents such as fire, water, wind, cold, heat, and thunder have in the Teutonic mythology a double aspect. When they work in harmony, each within the limits which are fixed by the welfare of the world and the happiness of man, then they are sacred forces and are represented by the gods. But when these limits are transgressed, giants are at work, and the turbulent elements are represented by beings of giant-race. This is also true of thunder, although it is the common view among mythologists that it was regarded exclusively as a product of Thor's activity. The genuine mythical conception was, however, that the thunder which purifies the atmosphere and fertilises the thirsty earth with showers of rain, or strikes down the foes of Midgard, came from Thor; while that which splinters the sacred trees, sets fire to the woods and houses, and kills men that have not offended the gods, came from the foes of the world. The blaze-element (see No. 35) was not only in the possession of the gods, but also in that of the giants (Skirnersmal), and the lightning did not proceed alone from Mjolner, but was also found in Hrungner's hein and in Geirrod's glowing javelin. The conflicts between Thor and the giants were not only on terra firma, as when Thor made an expedition on foot to Jotunheim, but also in the air. There were giant-horses that were able to wade with force and speed through the atmosphere, as, for instance, Hrungner's Gullfaxi (Younger Edda, i. 270), and these giant-horses with their shining manes, doubtless, were expected to carry their riders to the lightning-conflict in space against the lightning-hurler, Thor. The thunder-storm was frequently a vig thrimu, a conflict between thundering beings, in which the lightnings hurled by the ward of Midgard, the son of Hlodyn, crossed the lightnings hurled by the foes of Midgard.
Loke and his brothers Helblindi and Byl-eistr are the children of a giant of this kind, of a giant representing the hurricane and thunder. The rain-torrents and waterspouts of the hurricane, which directly or indirectly became wedded to the sea through the swollen streams, gave birth to Helblinde, who, accordingly, received Rán as his "maid" (Yngl., 51). The whirlwind in the hurricane received as his ward Byleistr, whose name is composed of bylr, "whirlwind," and eistr, "the one dwelling in the east" (the north), a paraphrase for "giant." A thunderbolt from the hurricane gave birth to Loke. His father is called Fárbauti, "the one inflicting harm," and his mother is Laufey, "the leaf-isle," a paraphrase for the tree-crown (Younger Edda, 104, 268). Thus Loke is the son of the burning and destructive lightning, the son of him who particularly inflicts damaging blows on the sacred oaks (see No. 36) and sets fire to the groves. But the violence of the father does not appear externally in the son's character. He long prepares the conflagration of the world in secret, and not until he is put in chains does he exhibit, by the earthquakes he produces, the wild passion of his giant nature. As a fire-being, he was conceived as handsome and youthful. From an ethical point of view, the impurity of the flame which he represents is manifested by his unrestrained sensuousness. After he had been for ever exiled from the society of the gods and had been fettered in his cave of torture, his exterior, which was in the beginning beautiful, became transformed into an expression of his intrinsic wickedness, and his hair grew out in the form of horny spears (see above). In this too he reveals himself as a counterpart of Heimdal, whose helmet is ornamented with a glittering ram's horn.
83.
MUNDILFORE'S IDENTITY WITH LODUR.
The position which we have found Mundilfore to occupy indicates that, although not belonging to the powers dwelling in Asgard, he is one of the chief gods of the Teutonic mythology. All natural phenomena, which appear to depend on a fixed mechanical law and not on the initiative of any mighty will momentarily influencing the events of the world, seem to have been referred to his care. The mythology of the Teutons, like that of the Rigveda-Aryans, has had gods of both kinds—gods who particularly represent that order in the physical and moral world which became fixed in creation, and which, under normal conditions, remain entirely uniform, and gods who particularly represent the powerful temporary interference for the purpose of restoring this order when it has been disturbed, and for the purpose of giving protection and defence to their worshippers in times of trouble and danger. The latter are in their very nature war-gods always ready for battle, such as Vita and Indra in Rigveda, Odin and Thor-Indride in the Eddas; and they have their proper abode in a group of fortified celestial citadels like Asgard, whence they have their out-look upon the world they have to protect—the atmosphere and Midgard. The former, on the other hand, have their natural abode in Jormungrund's outer zone and in the lower world, whence the world-tree grew, and where the fountains are found whose liquids penetrate creation, and where that wisdom had its source of which Odin only, by self-sacrifice, secured a part. Down there dwell, accordingly, Urd and Mimer, Nat and Dag, Mundilfore with the dises of the sun and the moon, Delling, the genius of the glow of dawn, and Billing, the genius of the blushing sunset. There dwell the smiths of antiquity who made the chariots of the sun and moon and smithied the treasures of vegetation. There dwell the nidjar who represent the moon's waxing and waning; there the seven sons of Mimer who represent the changing seasons (see No. 87). Mundilfore is the lord of the regular revolutions of the starry firmament, and of the regular rising and sinking of the sea in its ebb and flood. He is the father of the dises of the sun and moon, who make their celestial journeys according to established laws; and, finally, he is the origin of the holy fire; he is father of Heimdal, who introduced among men a systematic life in homes fixed and governed by laws. As the father of Heimdal, the Vana-god, Mundilfore is himself a Vana-god, belonging to the oldest branch of this race, and in all probability one of those "wise rulers" who, according to Vafthrudnersmal, "created Njord in Vanaheim and sent him as a hostage to the gods (the Asas)."
Whence came the clans of the Vans and the Elves? It should not have escaped the notice of the mythologists that the Teutonic theogony, as far as it is known, mentions only two progenitors of the mythological races—Ymer and Bure. From Ymer develop the two very different races of giants, the offspring of his arms and that of his feet (see No. 86)—in other words, the noble race to which the norns Mimer and Beistla belong, and the ignoble, which begins with Thrudgelmer. Bure gives birth to Burr (Bor), and the latter has three sons—Odinn, Vei (Vé), and Vili (Vilir). Unless Bure had more sons, the Van- and Elf-clans have no other theogonic source than the same as the Asa-clan, namely, Burr. That the hierologists of the Teutonic mythology did not leave the origin of these clans unexplained we are assured by the very existence of a Teutonic theogony, together with the circumstance that the more thoroughly our mythology is studied the more clearly we see that this mythology has desired to answer every question which could reasonably be asked of it, and in the course of ages it developed into a systematic and epic whole with clear outlines sharply drawn in all details. To this must be added the important observation that Vei and Vili, though brothers of Odin, are never counted among the Asas proper, and had no abode in Asgard. It is manifest that Odin himself with his sons founds the Asa-race, that, in other words, he is a clan-founder in which this race has its chieftain, and that his brothers, for this very reason, could not be included in his clan. There is every reason to assume that they, like him, were clan-founders; and as we find besides the Asa-clan two other races of gods, this of itself makes it probable that Odin's two brothers were their progenitors and clan-chieftains.