91.
THE MYTH CONCERNING THE MOON-GOD (continued).
The moon-god, like Nat, Dag, and Sol, is by birth and abode a lower-world divinity. As such, he too had his importance in the Teutonic eschatology. The god who on his journeys on "Nokve's holy way" serves auldom at ártali (Vafthrudnersmal, 23) by measuring out to men time in phases of the moon, in months, and in years has, in the mythology also, received a certain influence in inflicting suffering and punishment on sinners. He is lord of the heiptir, the Teutonic Erinnyes (see No. 75), and keeps those limar (bundles of thorns) with which the former are armed, and in this capacity he has borne the epithet Eylimi, which reappears in the heroic songs in a manner which removes all doubt that Nanna's father was originally meant. (See in Saxo and in Helge Hjorvardson's saga. To the latter I shall return in the second part of this work, and I shall there present evidence that the saga is based on episodes taken from the Balder myth, and that Helge Hjorvardson is himself an imitation of Balder). In this capacity of lord of the Heiptir the moon-god is the power to whom prayers are to be addressed by those who desire to be spared from those sufferings which the Heiptir represent (Heithtom scal mána qvedja—Havamál, 137). His quality as the one who keeps the thorn-rods of the heiptir still survives in a great part of the Teutonic world in the scattered traditions about "the man in the moon," who carries bundles of thorns on his back (J. Grimm, Myth., 680; see No. 123).
92.
THE MOON-DIS NANNA. THE MERSEBURG FORMULA. BALDER'S NAME FALR.
Thus Nanna is the daughter of the ruler of the moon, of "the ward of the atmosphere." This alone indicates that she herself was mythologically connected with the phenomena which pertain to her father's domain of activity, and in all probability was a moon-dis (goddess). This assumption is fully confirmed by a contribution to Teutonic mythology rescued in Germany, the so-called Merseburg formula, which begins as follows:
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Phol ende Uodan vuoron zi holza dû vart demo Balderes volon sin vous birenkit thû biguolon Sinhtgunt. Sunna era svister, thû biguolen Friia, Volla era svister thû biguolen Uodan sô hê wola conda. |
Falr and Odin went to the wood, then was the foot sprained on Balder's foal. Then sang over him Sinhtgunt, Sunna her sister, then sang over him Frigg, Fulla her sister; then sang over him Odin as best he could. |
Of the names occurring in this strophe Uodan-Odin, Balder, Sunna (synonym of Sol—Alvissm., 17; Younger Edda, i. 472, 593), Friia-Frigg, and Volla-Fulla are well known in the Icelandic mythic records. Only Phol and Sinhtgunt are strangers to our mythologists, though Phol-Falr surely ought not to be so.