GEFION AND KING GYLPHI.
(From an etching by Lorenz Frölich.)
It is told that once when Gylphi, King of Sweden and Denmark, was sorely distressed, Gefion, "the giver," appeared before him in the form of a charming maiden and so delighted the king with a song, accompanied with dulcet notes of her harp, that Gylphi offered to bestow upon her any guerdon she might ask. To this proffer the divine Gefion replied, that if she had found so much favor in the eyes of her sovereign as to merit so great a reward, she asked that as much land might be given her as could be ploughed around by her four bulls in a day and night. Surprised at the modesty of her request Gylphi immediately granted it. Thereupon Gefion brought four wonderful bulls which she harnessed to a plow that had a hundred shares and ploughed the sea day and night, raising earth out of the water until the island of Zealand was formed, upon which she built a castle and established a kingdom. By her magic spells she transformed the four bulls into as many youths, who were indeed her sons by a giant. Soon afterwards she married Skjöld and became mother of a long line of kings.
As our investigation progresses it will be found that all these facts concerning Narve apply to Mimer, that "he who thinks" (Mimer) and "he who binds" (Narve) are the same person. Already the circumstances that Narve was an ancient being of giant descent, that he dwelt in the lower world and was the possessor of the fountain of wisdom there, that he was Odin's friend, and that he died and left his fountain as an inheritance (cp. Mims synir), point definitely to Narve's and Mimer's identity. Thus the Teutonic theogony has made Thought the older kinsman of Fate, who through Nat bears Dag to the world. The people of antiquity made their first steps toward a philosophical view of the world in their theogony.
The Old English language has preserved and transferred to the Christian Paradise a name which originally belonged to the subterranean region of bliss of heathendom—Neorxenavang. Vang means a meadow, plain, field. The mysterious Neorxena looks like a genitive plural. Grein, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and before him Weinhold, refers neorxena to Narve, Nare, and this without a suspicion that Narve was an epithet of Mimer and referred to the king of the heathen regions of bliss. I consider this an evidence that Grein's assumption is as correct as it is necessary, if upon the whole we are to look for an etymological explanation of the word. The plural genitive, then, means those who inhabit Narve's regions of bliss, and receive their appellation from this circumstance. The opposite Old Norse appellation is njarir, a word which I shall discuss below.
To judge from certain passages in Christian writings of the thirteenth century, Mimer was not alone about the name Narve, Nare. One or two of Loke's sons are supposed to have had the same name. The statements in this regard demand investigation, and, as I think, this will furnish another instructive contribution to the chapter on the confusion of the mythic traditions, and on the part that the Younger Edda plays in this respect. The passages are:
(a) The prosaic afterword to Lokasenna: "He (Loke) was bound with the entrails of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was turned into a wolf."
(b) Gylfaginning, ch. 33. (1) Most of the codices: "His (Loke's) wife is hight Sygin; their son is Nari or Narvi."
(2) Codex Hypnonesiensis: "His (Loke's) wife is hight Sygin; his sons are hight Nari or Narvi and Vali."
(c) Gylfaginning, ch. 50. (1) Most of the codices: "Then were taken Loke's sons Vali and Nari or Narfi. The Asas changed Vali into a wolf, and the latter tore into pieces his brother Narfi. Then the Asas took his entrails and therewith bound Loke."