The wars between Erik and Halfdan were, according to Saxo, carried on with changing fortunes. In one of these conflicts, which must have taken place before Erik secured the irresistible sword, Halfdan is victorious and takes Erik prisoner; but the heart of the victor is turned into reconciliation toward the inexorable foe, and he offers Erik his life and friendship if the latter will serve his cause. But when Erik refuses the offered conciliation, Halfdan binds him fast to a tree in order to make him the prey of the wild beasts of the forest and abandons him to his fate. Halfdan's desire to become reconciled with Erik, and also the circumstance that he binds him, is predicted, in Grogalder (strs. 9, 10), by Svipdag's mother among the fortunes that await her son:
thann gel ek thér inn fjórda
ef thik fjándr standa
görvir á galgvegi:
hugr theim hverfi
til handa ther mætti,
ok snuisk theim til sátta sefi.
thann gel ek pér inn fimta
ef thér fjöturr verdr
borinn at boglimum:
Leifnis elda læt ek thér
fyr legg of kvedinn,
ok stökkr thá láss af limum,
en af fótum fjöturr.
The Svipdag synonyms so far met with are: Ódr (Hotherus), Óttarr (Otharus), and Eirekr (Ericus).
IDUN BROUGHT BACK TO ASGARD.
(From an etching by Lorenz Frölich.)
In pursuance of a promise made by Loke to secure his release, he beguiled Idun out of Asgard and into the power of giant Thjasse. Idun was keeper of the apples upon which the gods fed to renew their youth and her disappearance from Asgard was, therefore, followed by rapid ageing, into decrepitude, of the gods. They discovered that Loke was the scoundrel who had caused Idun's betrayal and threatened him with death if he failed to bring her back. Accordingly Loke borrowed Freyja's falcon plumage and flew to Jotunheim—home of the giants. Thjasse was at sea fishing, so Loke quickly found Idun, whom he transformed into a nut and hastened with her to Asgard. Thjasse soon learned what had happened and on eagle wings he pursued the fleeing Loke but his coming was seen by Heimdal, warder of Asgard's gate, and by his orders a fire was quickly made on the walls, which scorched Thjasse's wings as he flew over and he fell into the power of the gods who promptly slew him.
See pages [899], [959], [909], [960].
It is remarkable, but, as we shall find later, easy to explain that this saga-hero, whom the mythology made Freyja's husband, and whose career was adorned with such strange adventures, was not before the ninth century, and that in Sweden, accorded the same rank as the Asa-gods, and this in spite of the fact that he was adopted in Asgard, and despite the fact that his half-brother Ull was clothed with the same dignity as that of the Asa-gods. There is no trace to show that he who is Freyja's husband and Frey's brother-in-law was generally honoured with a divine title, with a temple, and with sacrifices. He remained to the devotees of the mythology what he was—a brilliant hero, but nothing more; and while the saga on the remote antiquity of the Teutons made him a ruler of North Teutonic tribes, whose leader he is in the war against Halfdan and Hadding (see Nos. 33, 38), he was honoured as one of the oldest kings of the Scandinavian peoples, but was not worshipped as a god. As an ancient king he has received his place in the middle-age chronicles and genealogies of rulers now under the name Svipdag, now under the name Erik. But, at the same time, his position in the epic was such that, if the Teutonic Olympus was ever to be increased with a divinity of Asa-rank, no one would have a greater right than he to be clothed with this dignity. From this point of view light is shed on a passage in ch. 26 of Vita Ansgarii. It is there related, that before Ansgarius arrived in Birka, where his impending arrival was not unknown, there came thither a man (doubtless a heathen priest or skald) who insisted that he had a mission from the gods to the king and the people. According to the man's statement, the gods had held a meeting, at which he himself had been present, and in which they unanimously had resolved to adopt in their council that King Erik who in antiquity had ruled over the Swedes, so that he henceforth should be one of the gods (Ericum, quondam regem vestrum, nos unanimes in collegium nostrum ascisimus, ut sit unus de numero deorum); this was done because they had perceived that the Swedes were about to increase the number of their present gods by adopting a stranger (Christ) whose doctrine could not be reconciled with theirs, and who accordingly did not deserve to be worshipped. If the Swedes wished to add another god to the old ones, under whose protection the country had so long enjoyed happiness, peace, and plenty, they ought to accord to Erik, and not to the strange god, that honour which belongs to the divinities of the land. What the man who came to Birka with this mission reported was made public, and created much stir and agitation. When Ansgarius landed, a temple had already been built to Erik, in which supplications and sacrifices were offered to him. This event took place at a time foreboding a crisis for the ancient Odinic religion. Its last bulwarks on the Teutonic continent had recently been levelled with the ground by Charlemagne's victory over the Saxons. The report of the cruelties practised by the advocates of the doctrine, which invaded the country from the south and the west for the purpose of breaking the faith of the Saxon Odin worshippers towards their religion, had certainly found its way to Scandinavia, and doubtless had its influence in encouraging that mighty effort made by the northern peoples in the ninth century to visit and conquer on their own territory their Teutonic kinsmen who had been converted to Christianity. It is of no slight mythological interest to learn that zealous men among the Swedes hoped to be able to inspire the old doctrine with new life by adopting among the gods Freyja's husband, the most brilliant of the ancient mythic heroes and the one most celebrated by the skalds. I do not deem it impossible that this very attempt made Erik's name hated among some of the Christians, and was the reason why "Old Erik" became a name of the devil. Vita Ansgarii says that it was the devil's own work that Erik was adopted among the gods.
The Svipdag synonym Erik reappears in the Christian saga about Erik Vidforle (the far-travelled), who succeeded in finding and entering Odainsakr (see No. 44). This is a reminiscence of Svipdag's visit in Mimer's realm. The surname Vidförli has become connected with two names of Svipdag: we have Eirikr hinn vidförli and Ódr (Oddr) hinn vidförli in the later Icelandic sagas.
104.
THE LATER FORTUNES OF THE VOLUND SWORD.