The hero of the poem is Svipdag, here called by his father's name Orendel, Orentel—that is, Orvandel. The father himself, who is said to be a king in Trier, has received another name, which already in the most ancient heathen times was a synonym of Orvandel, and which I shall consider below. This in connection with the circumstance that the younger Orentel's (Svipdag's) patron saint is called "the holy Wieland," and thus he has the name of a person who, in the mythology, as shall be shown below, was Svipdag's uncle (father's brother) and helper, and whose sword is Svipdag's protection and pledge of victory, proves that at least in solitary instances not only the events of the myth but also its names and family relations have been preserved in a most remarkable and faithful manner through centuries in the minds of the German people.
In the very nature of things it cannot in the monkish poem be the task of the young Svipdag-Orentel to go in search of the heathen goddess Freyja and rescue her from the power of the giants. In her stead appears a "Frau Breyde," who is the fairest of all women, and the only one worthy to be the young Orentel's wife. In theheathen poem the goddess of fate Urd, in the German medieval poem God Himself, resolves that Orentel is to have the fairest woman as his bride. In the heathen poem Freyja is in the power of giants, and concealed somewhere in Jotunheim at the time when Svipdag is commanded to find her, and it is of the greatest moment for the preservation of the world that the goddess of love and fertility should be freed from the hands of the powers of frost. In the German poem, written under the influence of the efforts of the Christian world to reconquer the Holy Land, Frau Breyde is a princess who is for the time being in Jerusalem, surrounded and watched by giants, heathens, and knights templar, the last of whom, at the time when the poem received its present form, were looked upon as worshippers of the devil, and as persons to be shunned by the faithful. To Svipdag's task of liberating the goddess of love corresponds, in the monkish poem, Orentel's task of liberating Frau Breyde from her surrounding of giants, heathens, and knights templar, and restoring to Christendom the holy grave in Jerusalem. Orentel proceeds thither with a fleet. But although the journey accordingly is southward, the mythic saga, which makes Svipdag journey across the frost-cold Elivagar, asserts itself; and as his fleet could not well be hindered by pieces of ice on the coast of the Holy Land, it is made to stick fast in "dense water," and remain there for three years, until, on the supplication of the Virgin Mary, it is liberated therefrom by a storm. The Virgin Mary's prayers have assumed the same place in the Christian poems as Groa's incantations in theheathen. The fleet, made free from the "dense water," sails to a land which is governed by one Belian, who is conquered by Orentel in a naval engagement. This Belian is the mythologicalBeli, one of those "howlers" who surrounded Frey and Freyja during their sojourn in Jotunheim and threatened Svipdag's life. In the Christian poem Bele was made a king in Great Babylonia, doubtless for the reason that his name suggested the biblical "Bel in Babel." Saxo also speaks of a naval battle in which Svipdag-Ericus conquers the mythic person, doubtless a storm-giant, who by means of witchcraft prepares the ruin of sailors approaching the land where Frotho and Gunvara are concealed. After various other adventures Orentel arrives in the Holy Land, and the angel Gabriel shows him the way to Frau Breyde, just as "the seven angels of God" in one of the Scandinavian ballads guide Sveidal to the castle where his chosen bride abides. Lady Breyde is found to be surrounded by none but foes of Christianity—knights templar, heathens, and giants—who, like Gunvara's giant surroundings in Saxo, spend their time in fighting, but still wait upon their fair lady as their princess. The giants and knights templar strive to take Orentel's life, and, like Svipdag, he must constantly be prepared to defend it. One of the giants slain by Orentel is a "banner-bearer." One of the giants, who in the mythology tries to take Svipdag's life, is Grep, who, according to Saxo, meets him in derision with a banner on the top of whose staff is fixed the head of an ox.
Meanwhile Lady Breyde is attentive to Orentel. As Menglad receives Svipdag, so Lady Breyde receivesOrentel with a kiss and a greeting, knowing that he is destined to be her husband.
When Orentel has conquered the giants he celebrates a sort of wedding with Lady Breyde, but between them lies a two-edged sword, and they sleep as brother and sister by each other's side. A wedding of a similar kind was mentioned in the mythology in regard to Svipdag and Menglad before they met in Asgard and were finally united. The chaste chivalry with which Freyja is met in the mythology by her rescuer is emphasised by Saxo both in his account of Ericus-Svipdag and Gunvara and in his story about Otharus and Syritha. He makes Ericus say of Gunvara to Frotha:Intacta illi pudicitia manet(Hist., 126). And of Otharus he declares:Neque puellam stupro violare sustinuit, nec splendido loco natam obscuro concubitus genere macularet(Hist., 331). The first wedding of Orentel and Breyde is therefore as if it had not been, and the German narrative makes Orentel, after completing other warlike adventures, sue for the hand of Breyde for the second time. In the mythology the second and real wedding between Svipdag and Freyja must certainly have taken place, inasmuch as he became reunited with her in Asgard.
The sword which plays so conspicuous a part in Svipdag's fortunes has not been forgotten in the German medieval tale. It is mentioned as being concealed deep down in the earth, and as a sword that is always attended by victory.
On one occasion Lady Breyde appears, weapon in hand, and fights by the side of Orentel, under circumstanceswhich remind us of the above-cited story from Saxo (see No. 102), when Ericus-Svipdag, Gunvara-Freyja, and Rollerus-Ull are in the abode of a treacherous giant, who tries to persuade Svipdag to deliver Gunvara to him, and when Bracus-Thor breaks into the giant abode, and either slays the inmates or puts them to flight. Gunvara then fights by the side of Ericus-Svipdag,muliebri corpore virilem animum æquans(Hist., 222).
In the German Orentel saga appears a "fisherman," who is called master Yse. Orentel has at one time been wrecked, and comes floating on a plank to his island, where Yse picks him up. Yse is not a common fisherman. He has a castle with seven towers, and eight hundred fishermen serve under him. There is good reason for assuming that this mighty chieftain of fishermen originally was the Asa-god Thor, who in the northern ocean once had the Midgard-serpent on his hook, and that the episode of the picking up of the wrecked Orentel by Yse has its root in a tradition concerning the mythical adventure, when the real Orvandel, Svipdag's father, feeble and cold, was met by Thor and carried by him across the Elivagar. In the mythology, as shall be shown hereafter, Orvendel the brave was Thor's "sworn" man, and fought with him against giants before the hostility sprang up between Ivalde's sons and the Asa-gods. In the Orentel saga Yse also regards Orentel as his "thrall." The latter emancipates himself from his thraldom with gold. Perhaps this ransom is a reference to the gold which Freyja's tears gave as a ransom for Svipdag.
Orentel's father is called Eigel, king in Trier. InVilkinasaga we find the archer Egil, Volund's brother, mentioned by the name-variation Eigill. The German Orentel's patron saint is Wieland, that is, Volund. Thus in the Orentel saga as in the Volundarkvida and in Vilkinasaga we find both these names Egil and Volund combined, and we have all the more reason for regarding King Eigel in Trier as identical with the mythological Egil, since the latter, like Orvandel, is a famous archer. Below, I shall demonstrate that the archer Orvandel and the archer Egil actually were identical in the mythology.
But first it may be in order to point out the following circumstances. Tacitus tells us in hisGermania(3): "Some people think, however, that Ulysses, too, on his long adventurous journeys was carried into this ocean (the Germanic), and visited the countries of Germany, and that he founded and gave name to Asciburgium, which is situated on the Rhine, and is still an inhabited city; nay, an altar consecrated to Ulysses, with the name of his father Laertes added, is said to have been found there." To determine the precise location of this Asciburgium is not possible. Ptolemy (ii. 11, 28), and after him Marcianus Heracleota (Peripl., 2, 36), inform us that an Askiburgon was situated on the Rhine, south of and above the delta of the river.Tabula Peutingerianalocates Asceburgia between Gelduba (Gelb) and Vetera (Xanten). But from the history of Tacitus it appears (iv. 33) that Asciburgium was situated between Neuss and Mainz (Mayence). Read the passage:Aliis a Novæsio, aliis a Mogontiaco universas copias advenisse credentibus.
The passage refers to the Roman troops sent to Asciburgium and there attacked—those troops which expected to be relieved from the nearest Roman quarters in the north or south. Its location should accordingly be looked for either on or near that part of the Rhine, which on the east bordered the old archbishopric Trier.
Thus the German Orentel saga locates King Eigel's realm and Orentel's native country in the same regions, where, according to Tacitus' reporter, Ulysses was said to have settled for some time and to have founded a citadel. As is well known, the Romans believed they found traces of the wandering Ulysses in well-nigh all lands, and it was only necessary to hear a strange people mention a far-travelled mythic hero, and he was at once identified either as Ulysses or Hercules. The Teutonic mythology had a heroà laUlysses in the younger Orentel, Odr-Svipdag-Heremod, whom the Beowulf poem calls "incomparably the most celebrated traveller among mankind" (wreccena wide mærost ofer wer-theóde). Mannhardt has already pointed out an episode (Orentel's shipwreck and arrival in Yse's land) which calls to mind the shipwreck of Odysseus and his arrival in the land of the Pheaces. Within the limits which the Svipdag-myth, according to my own investigations, proves itself to have had, other and more conspicuous features common to both, but certainly not borrowed from either, can be pointed out, for instance Svipdag's and Odysseus' descent to the lower world, and the combat in the guise of seals between Heimdal and Loke, which reminds us of the conflict of Menelaos clad in seal-skin with the seal-watcher Proteus(Odyss., iv., 404, &c.). Just as there are words in the Aryan languages that in their very form point to a common origin, but not to a borrowing, so there are also myths in the Aryan religions which in their very form reveal their growth from an ancient common Aryan root, but produce no suspicion of their being borrowed. Among these are to be classed those features of the Odysseus and Svipdag myths which resemble each other.
It has already been demonstrated above, thatGermania'sMannus is identical with Halfdan of the Norse sources, and that Yngve-Svipdag has his counterpart in Ingævo (see No. 24). That informer of Tacitus who was able to interpret Teutonic songs about Mannus and his sons, the three original race heroes of the Teutons, must also in those very songs have heard accounts of Orvandel's and Svipdag's exploits and adventures, since Orvandel and Svipdag play a most decisive part in the fortunes of Mannus-Halfdan. If the myth about Svipdag was composed in a later time, then Mannus-Halfdan's saga must have undergone a change equal to a complete transformation after the day of Tacitus, and for such an assumption there is not the slightest reason. Orvandel is not a mythic character of later make. As already pointed out, and as shall be demonstrated below, he has ancient Aryan ancestry. The centuries between Tacitus and Paulus Diaconus are unfortunately almost wholly lacking in evidence concerning the condition of the Teutonic myths and sagas; but where, as in Jordanes, proofs still gleam forth from the prevailing darkness, we find mention ofArpantala,Amala,Fridigernus,Vidigoia(Jord., v.).Jordanes says that in the most ancient times they were celebrated in song and described as heroes who scarcely had their equals (quales vix heroas fuisse miranda jactat antiquitas). Previous investigators have already recognized in Arpantala Orvandel, in Amala Hamal, in Vidigoia Wittiche, Wieland's son (Vidga Volundson), who in the mythology are cousins of Svipdag (see No. 108). Fridigernus,Fridgjarn, means "he who strives to get the beautiful one," an epithet to which Svipdag has the first claim among ancient Teutonic heroes, as Freyja herself has the first claim to the nameFrid(beautiful). In Fjölsvinnsmal it belongs to a dis, who sits at Freyja's feet, and belongs to her royal household. This is in analogy with the fact that the nameHlinbelongs at the same time to Frigg herself (Völuspa), and to a goddess belonging to her royal household (Younger Edda, i. 196).
What Tacitus tells about the stone found at Asciburgium, with the names of Ulysses and Laertes inscribed thereon, can of course be nothing but a conjecture, based on the idea that the famous Teutonic traveller was identical with Odysseus. Doubtless this idea has been strengthened by the similarity between the namesOdr, Goth.,Vods, and Odysseus, and by the fact that the name Laertes (acc. Laerten) has sounds in common with the name of Svipdag's father. If, as Tacitus seems to indicate, Asciburgium was named after its founder, we would find inAsc-an epithet of Orvandel's son, common in the first century after Christ and later. In that case it lies nearest at hand to think ofaiska(Fick. iii. 5), the English "ask," the Anglo-Saxonascian, the Swedishäska, "to seek," "search for," "to try to secure," which easily adapted itself to Svipdag, who goes on long and perilous journeys to look for Freyja and the sword of victory. I call attention to these possibilities because they appear to suggest an ancient connection, but not for the purpose of building hypotheses thereon. Under all circumstances it is of interest to note that the Christian medieval Orentel saga locates the Teutonic migration hero's home to the same part of Germany where Tacitus in his time assumed that he had founded a citadel. The tradition, as heard by Tacitus, did not however make the regions about the Rhine the native land of the celebrated traveller. He came thither, it is said inGermania, from the North after having navigated in the Northern Ocean. And this corresponds with the mythology, which makes Svipdag an Inguæon, and Svion, a member of the race of the Skilfing-Ynglings, makes him in the beginning fight on the side of the powers of frost against Halfdan, and afterwards lead not only the north Teutonic (Inguæonian) but also the west Teutonic tribes (the Hermiones) against the east Teutonic war forces of Hadding (see Nos. 38-40).
Memories of the Svipdag-myth have also been preserved in the story about Hamlet, Saxo's Amlethus (Snæbjorn'sAmlodi), son of Horvendillus (Orvandel). In the medieval story Hamlet's father, like Svipdag's father in the mythology, was slain by the same man, who marries the wife of the slain man, and, like Svipdag in the myth, Hamlet of the medieval saga becomes the avenger of his father Horvendillus and the slayer of his stepfather. Onmore than one occasion the idea occurs in the Norse sagas that a lad whose stepfather has slain his father broods over his duty of avenging the latter, and then plays insane or half idiot to avoid the suspicion that he may become dangerous to the murderer. Svipdag, Orvandel's son, is reared in his stepfather's house amid all the circumstances that might justify or explain such a hypocrisy. Therefore he has as a lad received the epithetAmlodi, the meaning of which is "insane," and the myth having at the same time described him as highly-gifted, clever, and sharp-witted, we have in the words which the mythology has attributed to his lips the key to the ambiguous words which make the cleverness, which is veiled under a stupid exterior, gleam forth. These features of the mythic account of Svipdag have been transferred to the middle-age saga anent Hamlet—a saga which already in Saxo's time had been developed into an independent narrative. I shall return to this theme in a treatise on the heroic sagas. Other reminiscences of the Svipdag-myth reappear in Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian ballads. The Danish ballads, which, with surprising fidelity, have preserved certain fundamental traits and details of the Svipdag-myth even down to our days, I have already discussed. The Norwegian ballad about "Hermod the Young" (Landstad Norske Folkeviser, p. 28), and its Swedish version, "Bergtrollet," which corresponds still more faithfully with the myth (Arvidson, i. 123), have this peculiar interest in reference to mythological synonymics and the connection of the mythic fragments preserved, that Svipdag appears in the former as in the Beowulf poem andin the Younger Edda under the name Hermod, and that both versions have for their theme a story, which Saxo tells about his Otharus when he describes the flight of the latter through Jotunheim with the rediscovered Syritha. It has already been stated above (No. 100) that after Otharus had found Syritha and slain a giant in whose power she was, he was separated from her on their way home, but found her once more and liberated her from a captivity into which she had fallen in the abode of a giantess. This is the episode which forms the theme of the ballad about "Hermod the Young," and of the Swedish version of it. Brought together, the two ballads give us the following contents:
The young Hermod secured as his wife a beautiful maiden whom he liberated from the hands of a giantess. She had fallen into the hands of giants through a witch, "gigare," originallygýgr, a troll-woman, Aurboda, who in a great crowd of people had stolen her out of a church (the divine citadel Asgard is changed into a "house of God"). Hermod hastens on skees "through woods and caverns and recesses," comes to "the wild sea-strand" (Elivagar) and to the "mountain the blue," where the giantess resides who conceals the young maiden in her abode. It is Christmas Eve. Hermod asks for lodgings for the night in the mountain dwelling of the giantess and gets it. Resorting to cunning, he persuades the giantess the following morning to visit her neighbours, liberates the fair maiden during her absence, and flies on his skees with her "over the high mountains and down the low ones." When the old giantess on her return homefinds that they have gone she hastens (according to the Norwegian version accompanied by eighteen giants) after those who have taken flight through dark forests with a speed which makes every tree bend itself to the ground. When Hermod with his young maiden had come to the salt fjord (Elivagar), the giantess is quite near them, but in the decisive moment she is changed to a stone, according to the Norse version, by the influence of the sun, which just at that time rose; according to the Swedish version, by the influence of a cross which stood near the fjord and its "long bridge."
The Swedish version states, in addition to this, that Hermod had a brother; in the mythology, Ull the skilful skee-runner. In both the versions, Hermod is himself an excellent skee-man. The refrains in both read: "He could so well on the skees run." Below, I shall prove that Orvandel, Svipdag's and Ull's father, is identical with Egil, the foremost skee-runner in the mythology, and that Svipdag is a cousin of Skade, "the dis of the skees." Svipdag-Hermod belongs to the celebrated skee-race of the mythology, and in this respect, too, these ballads have preserved a genuine trait of the mythology.
In their way, these ballads, therefore, give evidence of Svipdag's identity with Hermod, and of the latter's identity with Saxo's Otherus.
Finally, a few words about the Svipdag synonyms. Of these,OdrandHermodr(and in the Beowulf poemSvidferhd) form a group which, as has already been pointed out above, refer to the qualities of his mind. Svipdag ("the glimmering day") and Skirner ("the shining one")form another group, which refers to his birth as the son of the star-hero Orvandel, who is "the brightest of stars," and "a true beam from the sun" (see above). Again, anent the synonymEirekr, we should bear in mind that Svipdag's half-brother Gudhorm had the epithetJormunrekr, and the half-brother of the latter, Hadding, the epithetthódrekr. They are the three half-brothers who, after the patriarch Mannus-Halfdan, assume the government of the Teutons, and as each one of them has large domains, and rules over many Teutonic tribes, they are, in contradistinction to the princes of the separate tribes, great kings or emperors. It is the dignity of a great king which is indicated, each in its own way, by all these parallel names—Eirekr,Jormunrekr, andthódrekr.
108.
SVIPDAG'S FATHER ORVANDEL. EVIDENCE THAT HE IS IDENTICAL WITH VOLUND'S BROTHER EGIL. THE ORVANDEL SYNONYM EBBO (EBUR, IBOR).
Svipdag's father, Orvandel, must have been a mortal enemy of Halfdan, who abducted his wife Groa. But hitherto it is his son Svipdag whom we have seen carry out the feud of revenge against Halfdan. Still, it must seem incredible that the brave archer himself should remain inactive and leave it to his young untried son to fight against Thor's favourite, the mighty son of Borgar. The epic connection demands that Orvandel also should take part in this war, and it is necessary to investigatewhether our mythic records have preserved traces of the satisfaction of this demand in regard to the mythological epic.
As his name indicates, Orvandel was a celebrated archer. ThatÖr-in Orvandel, in heathen times, was conceived to be the wordör, "arrow"—though this meaning does not therefore need to be the most original one—is made perfectly certain by Saxo, according to whomÖrvandill'sfather was namedGeirvandill(Gervandillus,Hist., 135). Thus the father is the one "busy with the spear," the son "the one busy with the arrow."
Taking this as the starting point, we must at the very threshold of our investigation present the question: Is there among Halfdan's enemies mentioned by Saxo anyone who bears the name of a well-known archer?
This is actually the fact. Halfdan Berggram has to contend with two mythic persons, Toko and Anundus, who with united forces appear against him (Hist., 325). Toko,Toki, is the well-known name of an archer. In another passage in Saxo (Hist., 265, &c.) one Anundus, with the help of Avo (or Ano)sagittarius, fights against one Halfdan. Thus we have the parallels:
The archer Orvandel is an enemy of Halfdan.
The man called archer Toko and Anundus are enemies of Halfdan.
The archer Avo and Anundus are enemies of Halfdan.
What at once strikes us is the fact that both the one called Toko (an archer's name) and the archer Avo have as comrade one Anundus in the war against Halfdan. Whence did Saxo get this Anundus? We are now in thedomain of mythology related as history, and the name Anund must have been borrowed thence. Can any other source throw light on any mythic person by this name?
There was actually an Anund who held a conspicuous place in mythology, and he is none other than Volund. Volundarkvida informs us that Volund was also called Anund. When the three swan-maids came to the Wolfdales, where the three brothers, Volund, Egil, and Slagfin, had their abode, one of them presses Egil "in her white embrace," the other is Slagfin's beloved, and the third "lays her arms around Anund's white neck."
enn in thrithiatheirra systirvarthi hvitanhals Onondar.
Volund is the only person by name Anund found in our mythic records. If we now eliminate—of course only for the present and with the expectation of confirmatory evidence—the name Anund and substitute Volund, we get the following parallels:
Volund and Toko (the name of an archer) are enemies of Halfdan.
Volund and the archer named Avo are enemies of Halfdan.
The archer Orvandel is an enemy of Halfdan.
From this it would appear that Volund was very intimately associated with one of the archers of the mythology, and that both had some reason for being enemies of Halfdan. Can this be corroborated by any other source?
Volund's brothers are calledEgillandSlagfidr(Slagfinnr) in Volundarkvida. The Icelandic-Norwegian poems from heathen times contain paraphrases which prove that the mythological Egil was famous as an archer and skee-runner. The bow is "Egil's weapon," the arrows are "Egil's weapon-hail" (Younger Edda, 422), and "the swift herring of Egil's hands" (Har. Gr., p. 18). A ship is called Egil's skees, originally because he could use his skees also on the water. In Volundarkvida he makes hunting expeditions with his brothers on skees. Vilkinasaga also (29, 30) knows Egil as Volund's brother, and speaks of him as a wonderfully skilful archer.
The same Volund, who in Saxo under the name Anund has Toko (the name of an archer) or the archer Avo by his side in the conflict with Halfdan, also has the archer Egil as a brother in other sources.
Of an archer Toko, who is mentioned inHist., 487-490, Saxo tells the same exploit as Vilkinasaga attributes to Volund's brother Egil. In Saxo it is Toko who performs the celebrated masterpiece which was afterwards attributed to William Tell. In Vilkinasaga it is Egil. The one like the other, amid similar secondary circumstances, shoots an apple from his son's head. Egil's skill as a skee-runner and the serviceableness of his skees on the water have not been forgotten in Saxo's account of Toko. He runs on skees down the mountain, sloping precipitously down to the sea, Kullen in Scania, and is said to have saved himself on board a ship. Saxo's Toko was therefore without doubt identical with Volund's brother Egil, and Saxo's Anund is the same Volund of whomthe Volundarkvida testifies that he also had this name in the mythology.
Thus we have demonstrated the fact that Volund and Egil appeared in the saga of the Teutonic patriarch Halfdan as the enemies of the latter, and that the famous archer Egil occupied the position in which we would expect to find the celebrated archer Orvandel, Svipdag's father. Orvandel is therefore either identical with Egil, and then it is easy to understand why the latter is an enemy of Halfdan, who we know had robbed his wife Groa; or he is not identical with Egil, and then we know no motive for the appearance of the latter on the same side as Svipdag, and we, moreover, are confronted by the improbability that Orvandel does nothing to avenge the insult done to him.
Orvandel's identity with Egil is completely confirmed by the following circumstances.
Orvandel has the Elivagar and the coasts of Jotunheim as the scene of his exploits during the time in which he is the friend of the gods and the opponent of the giants. To this time we must refer Horvendillus' victories over Collerus (Kollr) and his sister Sela (cp. the name of a monsterSelkolla—Bisk S., i. 605) mentioned by Saxo (Hist., 135-138). His surnameinn frækni, the brave, alone is proof that the myth refers to important exploits carried out by him, and that these were performed against the powers of frost in particular—that is to say, in the service of the gods and for the good of Midgard—is plain from the narrative in the Younger Edda (276, 277). This shows, as is also demanded by the epic connection,that the Asa-god Thor and the archer Orvandel were at least for a time confidential friends, and that they had met each other on their expeditions for similar purposes in Jotunheim. When Thor, wounded in his forehead, returns from his combat with the giantHrungnirto his home,thrúdvángr(thrúdvángar,thrudheimr,) Orvandel's wife Groa was there and tried to help him with healing sorcery, wherein she would also have succeeded if Thor could have made himself hold his tongue for a while concerning a report he brought with him about her husband, and which he expected would please her. And Groa did become so glad that she forgot to continue the magic song and was unable to complete the healing. The report was, as we know, that, on the expedition to Jotunheim from which he had now come home, Thor had met Orvandel, carried him in his basket across the Elivagar, and thrown a toe which the intrepid adventurer had frozen up to heaven and made a star thereof. Thor added that before long Orvandel would come "home;" that is to say, doubtless, "home to Thor," to fetch his wife Groa. It follows that, when he had carried Orvandel across the Elivagar, Thor had parted with him somewhere on the way, in all probability in Orvandel's own home, and that while Orvandel wandered about in Jotunheim, Groa, the dis of growth, had a safe place of refuge in the Asa-God's own citadel. A close relation between Thor and Orvandel also appears from the fact that Thor afterwards marries Orvandel's second wife Sif, and adopts his son Ull, Svipdag's half-brother (see No. 102), in Asgard.
Consequently Orvandel's abode was situated south ofthe Elivagar (Thor carried himnordanorJötunheimum—Younger Edda, 276), in the direction Thor had to travel when going to and from the land of the giants, and presumably quite near or on the strand of that mythic water-course over which Thor on this occasion carried him. When Thor goes from Asgard to visit the giants he rides the most of the way in his chariot drawn by the two goatsTanngnjóstrandTanngrisnir. In the poem Haustlaung there is a particularly vivid description of his journey in his thunder chariot through space when he proceeded to the meeting agreed upon with the giant Hrungner, on the return from which he met and helped Orvandel across Elivagar (Younger Edda, 276). But across this water and through Jotunheim itself Thor never travels in his car. He wades across the Elivagar, he travels on foot in the wildernesses of the giants, and encounters his foe face to face, breast to breast, instead of striking from above with lightning. In this all accounts of Thor's journeys to Jotunheim agree. Hence south of the Elivagar and somewhere near them there must have been a place where Thor left his chariot and his goats in safety before he proceeded farther on his journey. And as we already know that the archer Orvandel, Thor's friend, and like him hostile to the giants, dwelt on the road traveled by the Asa-god, and south of the Elivagar, it lies nearest at hand to assume that Orvandel's castle was the stopping place on his journey, and the place where he left his goats and car.
Now in Hymerskvida (7, 37, 38) we actually read that Thor, on his way to Jotunheim, had a stopping-place,where his precious car and goats were housed and taken care of by the host, who accordingly had a very important task, and must have been a friend of Thor and the Asa-gods in the mythology. The host bears the archer name Egil. From Asgard to Egil's abode, says Hymerskvida, it is about one day's journey for Thor when he rides behind his goats on his way to Jotunheim. After this day's journey he leaves the draught-animals, decorated with horns, with Egil, who takes care of them, and the god continues his journey on foot. Thor and Tyr being about to visit the giant Hymer—
Foro drivgomdag thann framAsgardi fra,unz til Egils quomo;hirdi hann hafrahorngaufgastahurfo at haulloer Hymir átti.
("Nearly all the day they proceeded their way from Asgard until they came to Egil's. He gave the horn-strong goats care. They (Thor and Tyr) continued to the great hall which Hymer owned.")
From Egil's abode both the gods accordingly go on foot. From what is afterwards stated about adventures on their way home, it appears that there is a long distance between Egil's house and Hymer's (cp. str. 35—foro lengi,adr., &c.). It is necessary to journey across the Elivagar first—byr fyr austan, Elivága hundviss Hymir(str. 5). In the Elivagar Hymer has his fishing-grounds,and there he is wont to catch whales on hooks (cp. str. 17—a vâg roa); but still he does not venture far out upon the water (see str. 20), presumably because he has enemies on the southern strand where Egil dwells. Between the Elivagar and Hymer's abode there is a considerable distance through woody mountain recesses (holtrid—str. 27) and past rocks in whose caverns dwell monsters belonging to Hymer's giant-clan (str. 35). Thor resorts to cunning in order to secure a safe retreat. After he has been out fishing with the giant, instead of making his boat fast in its proper place on the strand, as Hymer requests him to do, he carries the boat with its belongings all the difficult way up to Hymer's hall. He is also attacked on his way home by Hymer and all his giant-clan, and, in order to be able to wield Mjolner freely, he must put down the precious kettle which he has captured from the frost-giant and was carrying on his broad shoulders (str. 35, 36). But the undisturbed retreat across the Elivagar he has secured by the above-mentioned cunning.
Egil is calledhraunbúi(str. 38), an epithet the ambiguous meaning of which should not be unobserved. It is usually translated with rock-dweller, but it here means "he who lives near or atHraunn" (Hrönn).Hraunnis one of the names of the Elivagar (see Nos. 59, 93; cp. Younger Edda, 258, with Grimnersmal, 38).
After their return to Egil's, Thor and Tyr again seat themselves in the thunder-chariot and proceed to Asgard with the captured kettle. But they had not driven far before the strength of one of the horn-decorated draughtanimals failed, and it was found that the goat was lame (str. 37). A misfortune had happened to it while in Egil's keeping, and this had been caused by the cunning Loke (str. 37). The poem does not state the kind of misfortune—the Younger Edda gives us information on this point—but if it was Loke's purpose to make enmity between Thor and his friend Egil he did not succeed this time. Thor, to be sure, demanded a ransom for what had happened, and the ransom was, as Hymerskvida informs us, two children who were reared in Egil's house. But Thor became their excellent foster-father and protector, and the punishment was therefore of such a kind that it was calculated to strengthen the bond of friendship instead of breaking it.
Gylfaginning also (Younger Edda, i. 142, &c.) has preserved traditions showing that when Thor is to make a journey from Asgard to Jotunheim it requires more than one day, and that he therefore puts up in an inn at the end of the first day's travel, where he eats his supper and stops over night. There he leaves his goats and travels the next day eastward (north), "across the deep sea" (hafit that hit djúpa), on whose other side his giant foes have their abode. The sea in question is the Elivagar, and the tradition correctly states that the inn is situated on its southern (western) side.
But Gylfaginning has forgotten the name of the host in this inn. Instead of giving his name it simply calls him abuandi(peasant); but it knows and states on the other hand the names of the two children there reared, Thjalfe and Roskva; and it relates how it happened thatone of Thor's goats became lame, but without giving Loke the blame for the misfortune. According to Gylfaginning the event occurred when Thor was on his way to Utgard-Loke. In Gylfaginning, too, Thor takes the two children as a ransom, and makes Thjalfe (thjálfi) a hero, who takes an honourable part in the exploits of the god.
As shall be shown below, this inn on the road from Asgard to Jotunheim is presupposed as well known in Eilif Gudrunson's Thorsdrapa, which describes the adventures Thor met with on his journey to the giant Geirrod. Thorsdrapa gives facts of great mythological importance in regard to the inhabitants of the place. They are the "sworn" helpers of the Asa-gods, and when it is necessary Thor can thence secure brave warriors, who accompany him across Elivagar into Jotunheim. Among them an archer plays the chief part in connection with Thjalfe (see No. 114).
On the north side of Elivagar dwell accordingly giants hostile to gods and men; on the south side, on the other hand, beings friendly to the gods and bound in their friendship by oaths. The circumstance that they are bound by oaths to the gods (see Thorsdrapa) implies that a treaty has been made with them and that they owe obedience. Manifestly the uttermost picket guard to the north against the frost-giants is entrusted to them.
This also gives us an explanation of the position of the star-hero Orvandel, the great archer, in the mythological Epic. We can understand why he is engaged to the dis of growth, Groa, as it is his duty to defend Midgard against the destructions of frost; and why he fights onthe Elivagar and in Jotunheim against the same enemies as Thor; and why the mythology has made him and the lord of thunder friends who visit each other. With the tenderness of a father, and with the devotion of a fellow-warrior, the mighty son of Odin bears on his shoulders the weary and cold star-hero over the foggy Elivagar, filled with magic terrors, to place him safe by his own hearth south of this sea after he has honoured him with a token which shall for ever shine on the heavens as a monument of Orvandel's exploits and Thor's friendship for him. In the meantime Groa, Orvandel's wife, stays in Thor's halls.
But we discover the same bond of hospitality between Thor and Egil. According to Hymerskvida it is in Egil's house, according to Gylfaginning in the house in which Thjalfe is fostered, where the accident to one of Thor's goats happens. In one of the sources the youth whom Thor takes as a ransom is called simply Egil's child; in the other he is called Thjalfe. Two different mythic sources show that Thjalfe was a waif, adopted in Egil's house, and consequently not a real brother but a foster-brother of Svipdag and Ull. One source is Fornaldersaga (iii. 241), where it is stated that Groa in aflædarmálfound a little boy and reared him together with her own son.Flædarmális a place which a part of the time is flooded with water and a part of the time lies dry. The other source is the Longobard saga, in which the mythological Egil reappears as Agelmund, the first king of the Longobardians who emigrated from Scandinavia (Origo Longob., Paulus Diac., 14, 15; cp. No. 112). Agelmund, it is said, had a foster-son, Lamicho (Origo Longob.), or Lamissio (Paulus Diac.), whom he found in a dam and took home out of pity. Thus in the one place it is a woman who bears the name of the archer Orvandel's wife, in the other it is the archer Egil himself, who adopts as foster-son a child found in a dam or in a place filled with water. Paulus Diaconus says that the lad received the name Lamissio to commemorate this circumstance, "since he was fished up out of a dam or dyke," which in their (the Longobardian) language is calledlama(cp.lehm, mud.) The name Thjalfe (thjálfi) thus suggests a similar idea. As Vigfusson has already pointed out, it is connected with the English delve, a dyke; with the Anglo-Saxondelfan; the Dutchdelven, to work the ground with a spade, to dig. The circumstances under which the lad was found presaged his future. In the mythology he fells the clay-giant,Mökkr-kalfi(Younger Edda, i. 272-274). In the migration saga he is the discoverer of land and circumnavigates islands (Korm., 19, 3; Younger Edda, i. 496), and there he conquers giants (Harbards-ljod, 39) in order to make the lands inhabitable for immigrants. In the appendix to the Gotland law he appears as Thjelvar, who lands in Gotland, liberates the island from trolls by carrying fire, colonises it and becomes the progenitor of a host of emigrants, who settle in southern countries. In Paulus Diaconus he grows up to be a powerful hero; in the mythology he develops into the Asa-god Thor's brave helper, who participates in his and the great archer's adventures on the Elivagar and in Jotunheim. Paulus (ch. 15) says thatwhen Agelmund once came with his Longobardians to a river, "amazons" wanted to hinder him from crossing it. Then Lamissio fought, swimming in the river, with the bravest one of the amazons, and killed her. In the mythology Egil himself fights with the giantess Sela, mentioned in Saxo as an amazon;piraticis exercita rebus ac bellici perita muneris(Hist., 138), while Thjalfe combats with giantesses on Hlessey (Harbardslj., 39), and at the side of Thor and the archer he fights his way through the river waves, in which giantesses try to drown him (Thorsdrapa). It is evident that Paulus Diaconus' accounts of Agelmund and Lamissio are nothing but echoes related as history of the myths concerning Egil and Thjalfe, of which the Norse records fortunately have preserved valuable fragments.
Thus Thjalfe is the archer Egil's and Groa's foster-son, as is apparent from a bringing together of the sources cited. From other sources we have found that Groa is the archer Orvandel's wife. Orvandel dwells near the Elivagar and Thor is his friend, and visits him on his way to and from Jotunheim. These are the evidences of Orvandel's and Egil's identity which lie nearest at hand.
It has already been pointed out that Svipdag's father Orvandel appears in Saxo by the name Ebbo (see Nos. 23, 100). It is Otharus-Svipdag's father whom he calls Ebbo (Hist., 329-333). Halfdan slays Orvandel-Ebbo, while the latter celebrates his wedding with a princess Sygrutha (see No. 23). In the mythology Egil had the same fate: an enemy and rival kills him for the sake of a woman. "Franks Casket," an old work of sculpturenow preserved in England, and reproduced in George Stephens' great work on the runes,[9]represents Egil defending his house against a host of assailants who storm it. Within the house a woman is seen, and she is the cause of the conflict. Like Saxo's Halfdan, one of the assailants carries a tree or a branched club as his weapon. Egil has already hastened out, bow in hand, and his three famous arrows have been shot. Above him is written in runes his name, wherefore there can be no doubt about his identity. The attack, according to Saxo, took place, in the night (noctuque nuptiis superveniens—Hist., p. 330).
In a similar manner Paulus Diaconus relates the story concerning Egil Agelmund's death (ch. 16). He is attacked, so it is stated, in the night time by Bulgarians, who slew him and carried away his only daughter. During a part of their history the Longobardians had the Bulgarians as neighbors, with whom they were on a war-footing. In the mythology it was "Borgarians," that is to say, Borgar's son Halfdan and his men, who slew Orvandel. In history the "Borgarians" have been changed into Bulgarians for the natural reason that accounts of wars fought with Bulgarians were preserved in the traditions of the Longobardians.
The very name Ebbo reappears also in the saga of the Longobardians. The brothers, under whose leadership the Longobardians are said to have emigrated from Scandinavia, are in Saxo (Hist., 418) called Aggo and Ebbo; inOrigo Longobardorum, Ajo and Ybor; in Paulus(ch. 7), Ajo and Ibor. Thus the name Ebbo is another form for Ibor, the German Ebur, the NorseJöfurr, "a wild boar." The Ibor of the Longobard saga, the emigration leader, and Agelmund, the first king of the emigrants, in the mythology, and also in Saxo's authorities, are one and the same person. The Longobardian emigration story, narrated in the form of history, thus has its root in the universal Teutonic emigration myth, which was connected with the enmity caused by Loke between the gods and the primeval artists—an enmity in which the latter allied themselves with the powers of frost, and, at the head of the Skilfing-Yngling tribes, gave the impetus to that migration southward which resulted in the populating of the Teutonic continent with tribes from South Scandia and Denmark (see Nos. 28, 32).
Nor is the mythic hero Ibor forgotten in the German sagas. He is mentioned in Notker (about the year 1000) and in the Vilkinasaga. Notker simply mentions him in passing as a saga-hero well known at that time. He distinguishes between the real wild boar (Eber) roaming in the woods, and the Eber (Ebur) who "wears the swan-ring." This is all he has to say of him. But, according to Volundarkvida, the mythological Ebur-Egil is married to a swan-maid, and, like his brother Volund, he wore a ring. The signification of the swan-rings was originally the same as that of Draupner: they were symbols of fertility, and were made and owned for this reason by the primeval artists of mythology, who, as we have seen, were the personified forces of growth in nature, and by their beloved or wives, the swan-maids, who representedthe saps of vegetation, the bestowers of the mythic "mead" or "ale." The swan-maid who loves Egil is, therefore, in Volundarvida called Olrun, a parallel to the name Olgefion, as Groa, Orvandel's wife, is called in Haustlaung (Younger Edda, i. 282). Saxo, too, has heard of the swan-rings, and says that from three swans singing in the air fell acinguluminscribed with names down to King Fridlevus (Njord), which informed him where he was to find a youth who had been robbed by a giant, and whose liberation was a matter of great importance to Fridlevus. The context shows that the unnamed youth was in the mythology Fridlevus-Njord's own son Frey, the lord of harvests, who had been robbed by the powers of frost. Accordingly, a swan-ring has co-operated in the mythology in restoring the fertility of the earth.
In Vilkinasaga appears Villifer. The author of the saga says himself that this name is identical with Wild-Ebur, wild boar. Villifer, a splendid and noble-minded youth, wears on his arm a gold ring, and is the elder friend, protector, and saviour of Vidga Volundson. Of his family relations Vilkinasaga gives us no information, but the part it gives him to play finds its explanation in the myth, where Ebur is Volund's brother Egil, and hence the uncle of his favourite Vidga.
If we now take into consideration that in the German Orentel saga, which is based on the Svipdag-myth, the father of the hero is called Eigel (Egil), and his patron saint Wieland (Volund), and that in the archer, who in Saxo fights by the side of Anund-Volund against Halfdan,we have re-discovered Egil where we expected Orvandel; then we here find a whole chain of evidence that Ebur, Egil, and Orvandel are identical, and at the same time the links in this chain of evidence, taken as they are from the Icelandic poetry, and from Saxo, from England, Germany, and Italy, have demonstrated how widely spread among the Teutonic peoples was the myth about Orvandel-Egil, his famous brother Volund, and his no less celebrated son Svipdag. The result gained by the investigation is of the greatest importance for the restoration of the epic connection of the mythology. Hitherto the Volundarkvida with its hero has stood in the gallery of myths as an isolated torso with no trace of connection with the other myths and mythic sagas. Now, on the other hand, it appears, and as the investigation progresses it shall become more and more evident, that the Volund-myth belongs to the central timbers of the great epic of Teutonic mythology, and extends branches through it in all directions.
In regard to Svipdag's saga, the first result gained is that the mythology was not inclined to allow Volund's sword, concealed in the lower world, to fall into the hands of a hero who was a stranger to the great artist and his plans. If Volund forged the sword for a purpose hostile to the gods, in order to avenge a wrong done him, or to elevate himself and his circle of kinsmen among the elves at the expense of the ruling gods, then his work was not done in vain. If Volund and his brothers are those Ivalde sons who, after having given the gods beautiful treasures, became offended on account of the decisionwhich placed Sindre's work, particularly Mjolner, higher than their own, then the mythology has also completely indemnified them in regard to this insult. Mjolner is broken by the sword of victory wielded by Volund's nephew; Asgard trembles before the young elf after he had received the incomparable weapon of his uncle; its gate is opened for him and other kinsmen of Volund, and the most beautiful woman of the world of gods becomes his wife.
109.
FREY FOSTERED IN THE HOME OF ORVANDEL-EGIL AND VOLUND. ORVANDEL'S EPITHET ISOLFR. VOLUND'S EPITHET AGGO.
The mythology has handed down several names of the coast region near the Elivagar, where Orvandel-Egil and his kinsmen dwelt, while they still were the friends of the gods, and were an outpost active in the service against the frost-powers. That this coast region was a part of Alfheim, and the most northern part of this mythic land, appears already from the fact that Volund and his brothers are in Volundarkvida elf-princes, sons of a mythic "king." The rule of the elf-princes must be referred to Alfheim for the same reason as we refer that of the Vans to Vanheim, and that of the Asa-gods to Asgard. The part of Alfheim here in question, where Orvandel-Egil's citadel was situated, was in the mythology calledÝdalir,Ýsetr(Grimnersmal, 5; Olaf Trygveson's saga, ch. 21). This is also suggested by the fact thatUllr, elevated to thedignity of an Asa-god, he who is the son of Orvandel-Egil, and Svipdag's brother (see No. 102), according to Grimnersmal, has his halls built inÝdalir. Divine beings who did not originally belong to Asgard, but were adopted in Odin's clan, and thus became full citizens within the bulwarks of the Asa-citadel, still retain possession of the land, realm, and halls, which is their udal and where they were reared. After he became a denizen in Asgard, Njord continued to own and to reside occasionally in the Vana-citadel Noatun beyond the western ocean (see Nos. 20, 93). Skade, as an asynje, continues to inhabit her father Thjasse's halls in Thrymheim (Grimnersmal, 11). Vidar's grass and brush-grown realm is not a part of Asgard, but is the large plain on which, in Ragnarok, Odin is to fall in combat with Fenrer (Grimnersmal, 17; see No. 39). When Ull is said to have his halls in Ydaler, this must be based on a similar reason, and Ydaler must be the land where he was reared and which he inherited after his father, the great archer. When Grimnersmal enumerates the homes of the gods, the series of them begins with Thrudheim, Thor's realm, and next thereafter, and in connection with Alfheim, is mentioned Ydaler, presumably for the reason that Thor's land and Orvandel-Egil's were, as we have seen, most intimately connected in mythology.
Land er heilact,er ec liggia seasom oc olfom nær;en i thrudheimiscal thórr vera,unz um rivfaz regin.Ydalir heita.thar er Ullr hefirser úm gorva sali;Alfheim Freygáfo i árdagativar at tannfæ.
Ýdalirmeans the "dales of the bow" or "of the bows."Ýsetris "the chalet of the bow" or "of the bows." That the first part of these compound words isýr, "a bow," is proved by the way in which the local nameÝsetrcan be applied in poetical paraphrases, where the bow-holding hand is called Ysetr. The names refer to the mythical rulers of the region, namely, the archer Ull and his father the archer Orvandel-Egil. The place has also been calledGeirvadills setr,Geirvandills setr, which is explained by the fact that Orvandel's father bore the epithet Geirvandel (Saxo,Hist., 135). Hakon Jarl, the ruler of northern Norway, is called (Fagrsk., 37, 4)Geirvadills setrs Ullr, "the Ull of Geirvandel's chalet," a paraphrase in which we find the mythological association of Ull with the chalet which was owned by his father Orvandel and his grandfather Geirvandel. The Ydales were described as rich in gold.Ysetrs eldris a paraphrase for gold. With this we must compare what Volund says (Volundarkvida, 14) of the wealth of gold in his and his kinsmen's home. (See further, in regard to the same passage, Nos. 114 and 115.)
In connection with its mention of the Ydales, Grimnersmal states that the gods gave Frey Alfheim as a tooth-gift.Tannfé(tooth-gift) was the name of a gift which was given (and in Iceland is still given) to a child whenit gets its first tooth. The tender Frey is thus appointed by the gods as king over Alfheim, and chief of the elf-princes there, among whom Volund and Orvandel-Egil, judging from the mythic events themselves, must have been the foremost and most celebrated. It is also logically correct, from the standpoint of nature symbolism, that the god of growth and harvests receives the government of elves and primeval artists, the personified powers of culture. Through this arrangement of the gods, Volund and Orvandel become vassals under Njord and his son.
In two passages in Saxo we read mythic accounts told as history, from which it appears that Njord selected a foster-father for his son, or let him be reared in a home under the care of two fosterers. In the one passage (Hist., 272) it is Fridlevus-Njord who selects Avo the archer as his son's foster-father; in the other passage (Hist., 181) it is the tender Frotho, son of Fridlevus and future brother-in-law of Ericus-Svipdag, who receives Isulfus and Aggo as guardians.
So far as the archer Avo is concerned, we have already met him above (see No. 108) in combat by the side of Anundus-Volund against one Halfdan. He is a parallel figure to the archer Toko, who likewise fights by the side of Anundus-Volund against Halfdan, and, as has already been shown, he is identical with the archer Orvandel-Egil.
The name Aggo is borne by one of the leaders of the emigration of the Longobardians, brother of Ebbo-Ibor, in whom we have already discovered Orvandel-Egil.
The name Isolfr, in the Old Norse poetic language,designates the bear (Younger Edda, i. 589; ii. 484). Vilkinasaga makes Ebbo (Wild-Ebur) appear in the guise of a bear when he is about to rescue Volund's son Vidga from the captivity into which he had fallen. In his shield Ebbo has images of a wild boar and of a bear. As the wild boar refers to one of his names (Ebur), the image of the bear should refer to another (Isolfr).
Under such circumstances there can be no doubt that Orvandel-Egil and one of his brothers, the one designated by the name Aggo (Ajo), be this Volund or Slagfin, were entrusted in the mythology with the duty of fostering the young Frey. Orvandel also assumes, as vassal under Njord, the place which foster-fathers held in relation to the natural fathers of their protégés.
Frey, accordingly, is reared in Alfheim, and in the Ydales he is fostered by elf-princes belonging to a circle of brothers, among whom one, namely, Volund, is the most famous artist of mythology. His masterpiece, the sword of victory, in time proves to be superior to Sindre's chief work, the hammer Mjolner. And as it is always Volund whom Saxo mentions by Orvandel-Egil's side among his brothers (see No. 108), it is most reasonable to suppose that it is Volund, not Slagfin, who appears here under the name Aggo along with the great archer, and, like the latter, is entrusted with the fostering of Frey. It follows that Svipdag and Ull were Frey's foster-brothers. Thus it is the duty of a foster-brother they perform when they go to rescue Frey from the power of giants, and when they, later, in the war between the Asas and Vans, take Frey's side. This also throwsadditional light on Svipdag-Skirner's words to Frey in Skirnersmal, 5:
ungir samanvarom i árdaga,vel mættim tvæir truasc.
110.
SVIPDAG'S GRANDFATHER IS IVALDE. ORVANDEL, VOLUND, AND SLAGFIN THEREFORE IDENTICAL WITH IVALDE'S SONS.
In the mythology we read that elves smithied splendid treasures for Frey (Grimnersmal, 42; Younger Edda, i. 140, 340). Among these treasures were the remarkable shipSkidbladnirand the gold-glittering boarSlidrugtanni, also called Gullinbursti (Younger Edda, i. 176, 264, 340-344), both clearly symbols of vegetation. The elves that smithied these treasures are called Ivalde's sons, and constitute the same group of brothers whose gifts to the gods, at the instigation of Loke, are subjected to a public examination by the Asas and by them found wanting as compared with Sindre's products. It would be most surprising, nay, quite incredible, if, when other artists made useful presents to Frey, the elf-prince Volund and his brothers did not do likewise, inasmuch as he is the chief smith of them all, and inasmuch as he, with his brother Orvandel-Egil, has taken upon himself the duties of a foster-father toward the young harvest-god, among which duties one was certainly to care for his good and enable him to perform the important task devolving on him in the administration of the world.
From this standpoint already it is more than probable that the same artist who in the heroic saga of the Teutonic tribes, under the name Volund, Wieland, Weland, by the side of Mimer, plays the part of the foremost smith that antiquity knew is the same one as in the mythology was the most excellent smith; that is, the most skilful one among Ivalde's sons. This view is perfectly confirmed as to its correctness by the proofs which I shall now present.
Of Ivalde, Fornspjallsljod says that he had two groups of children, and that Idun, the goddess of vegetation, belonged to one of these groups:
Álfa ættarIthunni hetoIvallds ellriýngsta barna.
Idun is, therefore, a sister of the celebrated artists, the sons of Ivalde. In Volundarkvida, Volund and Slagfin are brothers or half-brothers of the dises of vegetation, who are together with them in the Wolfdales (see str. 2). According to Fornspjallsljod, Idun was for a time absent from Asgard, and stayed in a winter-cold land near Narfe-Mimer's daughter Nat, and in company with persons whose names and epithets indicate that they were smiths, primeval artists (RögnirandRegin; see Nos. 113, 115, and the epithetviggiar, a synonym ofsmidar—Younger Edda, i. 587). Thus we read precisely the same of Idun as of the swan-maids and vegetation-dises who dwelt for a time in the Wolfdales with Volund and his brothers.Further on it shall be demonstrated that the name of Volund's father in the introduction of Volundarkvida and the name given to the father of Volund's and Slagfin's swan-maids are synonyms, and refer to one and the same person. But if we for the present leave this proof out, and confine ourselves to the evidences already presented, then the question concerning the identity of the Ivalde sons with the group of brothers Volund, Egil, and Slagfin assumes the following form:
1. (a) There is in the mythology a group of brothers, the Ivalde sons, from whose hands the most wonderful works proceeded, works which were presented to the gods, and by the latter were compared with those of the primeval artist Sindre.
(b) In the heroic saga there is a group of brothers, to whom Volund belongs, the most celebrated of the smiths handed down from the mythology.
2. (a) Ivalde is an elf and his sons elves.
(b) Volund, Egil, and Slagfin are elves (Volundarkvida, 32).
3. (a) Ivalde's sons are brothers or half-brothers of the goddess of vegetation, Idun.
(b) Volund, Egil, and Slagfin are brothers or half-brothers of swan-maids and dises of vegetation.
4. (a) Of Idun, the sister of Ivalde's sons, it is stated that she was for a time absent from the gods, and dwelt with the primeval artists in a winter-cold land, near Nat, the daughter ofNarfi-Mimer.
(b) Volund and his brothers' swan-maids dwell for a time in a winter-cold land, which, as my researches havealready shown, is situatedfyr nágrindr nedan, consequently in the lower world, near the realm of Nat.
5. (a) Ivalde's sons were intimately associated with Frey and gave him precious treasures.
(b) Volund and Egil were intimately associated with Frey, and were his fosterers and wards.
6. (a) Ivalde's sons were most deeply insulted by the gods.
(b) Volund has been most deeply insulted by the Asas. He and Egil become their foes, and ally themselves with the powers of frost.
7. (a) The insult given to Ivalde's sons consisted in the fact that their works were judged inferior as compared with the hammer Mjolner made by Sindre.
(b) The best smith-work produced by Volund is a sword of such a quality that it is to prove itself superior to Mjolner in battle.
These circumstances alone force us to assume the identity of Ivalde's sons with Volund and his brothers. We must either admit the identity, or we are obliged to assume that the epic of the mythology contained two such groups of brothers, and made them identical in descent, functions, and fortunes. Besides, it must then have made the one group avenge not an insult offered to itself, but an insult to the other. I have abstained from the latter assumption, because it is in conflict with the best rules for a logical investigation—causæ non sunt præter necessitatem multiplicandæ. And the identity gains confirmation from all sides as the investigation progresses.
111.
THE RESULTS OF THE JUDGMENT PASSED ON THE WORKS OF ART PRODUCED BY THE IVALDE SONS. PARALLEL MYTHS IN RIGVEDA.
In the Younger Edda, which speaks of the judgment passed by the gods on the art works of the Ivalde sons (p. 340, &c.), there is nothing said about the consequences of the judgment; and the mythologists seem therefore to have assumed that no results followed, although it was prepared by the "father of misfortunes," the far-calculating and evil-scheming Loke. The judgment would in that case be an isolated event, without any influence on the future, and without any connection with the other mythic events. On the other hand, no possible explanation was found of Volund's words (Volundarkvida, 28), which he utters after he has taken his terrible vengeance on Nidad and is prepared to fly away in eagle guise from his prison:Nu hefi ec hefnt harma minna allra nema einna ivithgjarnra—"Now I have avenged all the wrongs done to me, excepting one, which demands a more terrible vengeance." The wrong here referred to by him is not done to him by Nidad, and did not happen to him while he lived as an exile in the wilderness of the Wolfdales, but belongs to an earlier time, when he and his brothers and their kinsmen dwelt in the realm rich in gold, where, according to Volundarkvida (14), they lived a happy life. This wrong was not avenged when he and his brothers left their home abounding in gold, in order that far from his enemies he might perfect his plan of revengeby making the sword of victory. Volund's words refer to the judgment passed on the art work of the Ivalde sons, and thus the mythic events unite themselves into a continuous chain.
This judgment was in its consequences too important not to be referred to in Völuspa, which makes all the danger-boding events of the mythology pass one by one before our eyes in the order in which they happened, in order to show how this world from an innocent and happy beginning sank deeper and deeper into the misery which attains its maturity in Ragnarok. That is the plan and purpose of the poem. As I shall show fully and in detail in another part of this work, its purpose is not to speak of Valfather's "art work," but of the treacherous deeds of Loke, "the father of evil" (Vafodrs vel—Cod. Hauk.); not to speak of "the traditions of the past," but of "the past events full of danger" (forn spjöll fira). The happy time during which the Asastefldu i túniandteitir várupasses away for ever, and is followed by an epoch in which three dangerous thurs-maidens came from Jotunheim. These thurs-maidens are not the norns, as has usually been assumed. Of the relation of the norns to the gods I have given a full account already. The three thurs-maids are the one who in her unity is triple and is thrice born of different parents. Her name is Heid-Gulveig-Angerboda, and, in connection with Loke, she constitutes the evil principle of Teutonic mythology, like Angra Mainyu, and Jahi in the Iranian mythology (Bundehesh, 3). The misfortune-boding event which happens after the first hypostasis of "the three times born" came fromJotunheim is mentioned in connection with its consequences in Völuspa (str. 8.) The Asas had not hitherto suffered from want of works of gold, but now came a time when such as might be of use or pleasure to the gods were no longer to be had. Of the gold-metal itself the gods have never been in want. Their halls glitter with this metal, and it grows in the bright woodGlasir, outside of Valhal (Younger Edda, i. 340). The poem, as the very words show, means golden works of art, things made of gold, such asGungnir,Draupnir, Sif's hair, Brisingamen, andSlidrugtanni, things the possession of which increased the power of the gods and the wealth of Midgard. Such ceased to flow into the hands of the gods. The epoch in which Sindre's and the Ivalde son's gifts increased Asgard's collection of world-protecting weapons and fertility-producing ornaments was at an end, when Loke, through Heid's arrival, found his other ego and when the evil principle, hitherto barren, could as man and woman give birth to evil deeds. The consequence of the first deceitful act was, as we see, that hands skilful in art—hands which hitherto had made and given such treasures—refused to serve the gods any longer. The arrangement whereby Loke gained this end Völuspa does not mention, but it can be no other than the judgment brought about by him, which insulted the sons of Ivalde, and, at the same time, cheated the victorious Sindre out of the prize agreed on, Loke's head. Both the groups of artists must have left the divine court angry at the gods. When we remember that the primeval artists are the creative forces of vegetation personified, then we can alsounderstand the significance of the conflict between them and the gods, whom they hitherto had served. The first part of Völuspa is interpolated partly with strophes from an old song of creation of great mythological importance, partly with its lists of names for the use of young poets. If we remove these interpolations, there remains a chain of primeval mythological mishaps, the first link of which is the event which marks the end of the first epoch during which the primeval artists, amicably united with the gods, made splendid weapons, means of locomotion, and ornaments for the latter. On this conflict followed the blending of the air with harmful elements—in other words, it was the beginning of the great winter. Freyja was betrayed into the hands of the giants; the black art, sown by Heid, was disseminated among mankind; the murder was committed against the one thrice born contrary to promise and oath; there is war between the Asas and Vans; the first great war in the world breaks out, when Asgard is stormed and Midgard is covered with battlefields, on which brothers slay each other; Balder is killed by the mistletoe; the host of monsters are born who, in the Ironwood, await Ragnarok; on account of the sins of men, it became necessary to make places of torture in the lower world. All these terrible events, which happened in time's morning, are the cunning work of the father of misfortunes and of his feminine counterpart. The seeress in Völuspa relates all these events and deeds to show the necessity of the coming destruction and regeneration of the world.
Above (see No. 54), it has already been shown that thefragments of old Aryan mythology, which Avesta, Zend, and Bundehesh have preserved, speak of a terrible winter, which visited the world. To rescue that which is noblest and best among plants, animals, and men from the coming destruction, Jima arranged in the lower world a separate enclosed domain, within which selected organisms live an uncontaminated life undisturbed by the events of this world, so that they may people a more beautiful and a happier earth in the regenerated world. I have shown that the same myth in all important details reappears in the Teutonic doctrine anent Mimer's grove and theásmegirliving there. In the Iranian records, we read that the great winter was the work of the evil spirit, but they do not tell the details or the epic causes of the destruction by the cold. Of these causes we get information in Rigveda, the Indian sister of the Iranian mythology.
Clothed with divine rank, there lives among Rigveda's gods an extraordinary artist, Tvashtar (Tvashtri), often mentioned and addressed in Rigveda's hymns. The word means "the master-workman," "the handi-workman" (Bergaigne,Relig. Ved., iii. 45; Darmesteter, Ormazd, 63, 100). He is the one who forms the organisms in the maternal wombs, the one who prepares and first possesses as his secret the strength- and inspiration-giving soma-drink (Rigv., ii. 53, &c.); it is he that supports the races of men (Rigv., iii. 55, 19). Among the wonderful things made by his hands are mentioned a goblet, which the gods drink from, and which fills itself with blessings (Rigv., iii. 55, 20; x. 53, 9), and Indra's the Hindooic Thor's, thunderbolt, corresponding to Thor's Mjolner.
But among mortals brothers have been reared, themselves mortals, and not of divine rank, but who have educated themselves into artists, whose skill fills the world with astonishment. They are three in number, usually called theRibhus, but alsoAnusandAyus, names which possibly may have some original connection with the Volund names Anund and Ajo. Most clever and enterprising in successful artistic efforts is the youngest of the three (Rigv., iv. 34). They are also soma-brewers, skalds, and heroes (Rigv., iv. 36, 5, 7), and one of them, like Volund's brother Orvandel-Egil, is an unsurpassed archer (Rigv., iv. 36, 6). On account of their handiwork, these mortal artists come in contact with the gods (Rigv., iv. 35), and as Volund and Orvandel-Egil become Thor's friends, allies, war-comrades, and servants, so the Ribhus become Indra's (Rigv., i. 51, 2; vii. 37, 7); "with Indra, the helpful, allied themselves the helpers; with Indra, the nimble, the Ribhus." They make weapons, coats-of-mail, and means of locomotion, and make wonderful treasures for the gods. On earth they produce vegetation in the deserts, and hew out ways for the fertilising streams (Rigv., v. 42, 12; iv. 33, 7). With Ivalde's sons, they, therefore, share the qualities of being at the same time creators of vegetation, and smiths at the hearth, and bestowers of precious treasures to the gods.