SVIPDAG'S LATER FORTUNES. HIS TRANSFORMATION AND DEATH. FREYJA GOES IN SEARCH OF HIM. FREYJA'S EPITHET MARDÖLL. THE SEA-KIDNEY, BRISINGAMEN. SVIPDAG'S EPITHET HERMÓDR.
When the war between the Asas and the Vans had broken out, Svipdag, as we have learned, espouses the cause of the Vans (see Nos. 33, 38), to whom he naturally belongs as the husband of the Vana-dis Freyja and Frey's most intimate friend. The happy issue of the war for the Vans gives Svipdag free hands in regard to Halfdan's hated son Hadding, the son of the woman for whose sake Svipdag's mother Groa was rejected. Meanwhile Svipdag offers Hadding reconciliation, peace, and a throne among the Teutons (see No. 38). When Hadding refuses to accept gifts of mercy from the slayer of his father, Svipdag persecutes him with irreconcilable hate. This hatred finally produces a turning-point in Svipdag's fortunes and darkens the career of the brilliant hero. After the Asas and Vans had become reconciled again, one of their first thoughts must have been to put an end to the feud between the Teutonic tribes, since a continuation of the latter was not in harmony with the peace restored among the gods (see No. 41), nevertheless the war was continued in Midgard (see No. 41), and the cause is Svipdag. He has become a rebel against both Asas and Vans, and herein we must look for the reason why, as we read in the Younger Edda, he disappeared from Asgard (Younger Edda, 114). But he disappears not only from the world of the gods, but finally also from the terrestrial seat of war, and that god or those gods who were to blame for this conceal his unhappy and humiliating fate from Freyja. It is at this time that the faithful and devoted Vana-dis goes forth to seek her lover in all worlds med ukunnum thjódum.
Saxo gives us two accounts of Svipdag's death—the one clearly converted into history, the other corresponding faithfully with the mythology. The former reports that Hadding conquered and slew Svipdag in a naval battle (Hist., 42). The latter gives us the following account (Hist., 48):
While Hadding lived in exile in a northern wilderness, after his great defeat in conflict with the Swedes, it happened, on a sunny, warm day, that he went to the sea to bathe. While he was washing himself in the cold water he saw an animal of a most peculiar kind (bellua inauditi generis), and came into combat with it. Hadding slew it with quick blows and dragged it on shore. But while he rejoiced over this deed a woman put herself in his way and sang a song, in which she let him know that the deed he had now perpetrated should bring fearful consequences until he succeeded in reconciling the divine wrath which this murder had called down upon his head. All the forces of nature, wind and wave, heaven and earth, were to be his enemies unless he could propitiate the angry gods, for the being whose life he had taken was a celestial being concealed in the guise of an animal, one of the super-terrestrial:
Quippe unum e superis alieno corpore tectum
Sacrilegæ necuere manus: sic numinis almi
Interfector ades.
It appears, however, from the continuation of the narrative, that Hadding was unwilling to repent what he had done, although he was told that the one he had slain was a supernatural being, and that he long refused to propitiate those gods whose sorrow and wrath he had awakened by the murder. Not until the predictions of the woman were confirmed by terrible visitations does Hadding make up his mind to reconcile the powers in question. And this he does by instituting the sacrificial feast, which is called Frey's offering, and thenceforth was celebrated in honour of Frey (Fro deo rem divinam furvis hostiis fecit).
Hadding's refusal to repent what he had done, and the defiance he showed the divine powers, whom he had insulted by the murder he had committed, can only be explained by the fact that these powers were the Vana-gods who long gave succour to his enemies (see No. 39), and that the supernatural being itself, which, concealed in the guise of an animal, was slain by him, was some one whose defeat gave him pleasure, and whose death he considered himself bound and entitled to cause. This explanation is fully corroborated by the fact that when he learns that Odin and the Asas, whose favourite he was, no longer hold their protecting hands over him, and that the propitiation advised by the prophetess becomes a necessity to him, he institutes the great annual offering to Frey, Svipdag's brother-in-law. That this god especially must be propitiated can, again, have no other reason than the fact that Frey was a nearer kinsman than any of the Asa-gods to the supernatural being, from whose slayer he (Frey) demanded a ransom. And as Saxo has already informed us that Svipdag perished in a naval engagement with Hadding, all points to the conclusion that in the celestial person who was concealed in the guise of an animal and was slain in the water we must discover Svipdag Freyja's husband.
Saxo does not tell us what animal guise it was. It must certainly have been a purely fabulous kind, since Saxo designates it as bellua inauditi generis. An Anglo-Saxon record, which is to be cited below, designates it as uyrm and draca. That Svipdag, sentenced to wear this guise, kept himself in the water near the shore of a sea, follows from the fact that Hadding meets and kills him in the sea where he goes to bathe. Freyja, who sought her lost lover everywhere, also went in search for him to the realms of Ægir and Rán. There are reasons for assuming that she found him again, and, in spite of his transformation and the repulsive exterior he thereby got, she remained with him and sought to soothe his misery with her faithful love. One of Freyja's surnames shows that she at one time dwelt in the bosom of the sea. The name is Mardöll. Another proof of this is the fragment preserved to our time of the myth concerning the conflict between Heimdal and Loke in regard to Brisingamen. This neck- and breast-ornament, celebrated in song both among the Teutonic tribes of England and those of Scandinavia, one of the most splendid works of the ancient artists, belonged to Freyja (Thrymskvida, Younger Edda). She wore it when she was seeking Svipdag and found him beneath the waves of the sea; and the splendour which her Brisingamen diffused from the deep over the surface of the sea is the epic interpretation of the name Mardöll from marr, "sea," and döll, feminine of dallr (old English deall), "glittering" (compare the names Heimdallr and Delling). Mardöll thus means "the one diffusing a glimmering in the sea." The fact that Brisingamen, together with its possessor, actually was for a time in Æger's realm is proved by its epithet fagrt hafnýra, "the fair kidney of the sea," which occurs in a strophe of Ulf Uggeson (Younger Edda, 268). There was also a skerry, Vágasker, Singasteinn, on which Brisingamen lay and glittered, when Loke, clad in the guise of a seal tried to steal it. But before he accomplished his purpose, there crept upon the skerry another seal, in whose looks—persons in disguise were not able to change their eyes—the evil and cunning descendant of Farbaute must quickly have recognised his old opponent Heimdal. A conflict arose in regard to the possession of the ornament, and the brave son of the nine mothers became the victor and preserved the treasure for Asgard.
To the Svipdag synonyms Ódr (Hotharus), Óttar (Otharus), Eirekr (Ericus), and Skirnir, we must finally add one more, which is, perhaps, of Anglo-Saxon origin: Hermodr, Heremod.