Chapter 15

Far-famed heroes were Wicland and Wittich, (70) whose rich legend is second to none in age or celebrity. Vidigoia (Vidugáuja) of whom the Goths already sang, OHG. Witugouwo as well as Witicho, MHG. Witcgouwe and Witege, AS. Wudga, in either form silvicola, from the Goth. vidus, OHG. witu, AS. wudu (lignum, silva), leads us to suppose a being passing the bounds of human nature, a forest-god. Frau Wâchilt, a mermaid, is his ancestress, with whom he takes refuge in her lake. At the head of the whole race is placed king Vilkinus, named after Vulcanus as the Latin termination shews, a god or demigod, who must have had another and German name, and who begets with the merwoman a gigantic son Vadi, AS. Wada (Cod. Exon. 323, 1), OHG. Wato, so named I suppose because, like another Christopher, he waded with his child on his shoulder through the Grœnasund where it is nine yards deep (between Zealand, Falster and Moen); the Danish hero Wate in Gudrun is identical with him; the AS. Wada is placed toward Helsingen. Old English poetry had much to tell of him, that is now lost: Chaucer names 'Wades boot Guingelot,' and a place in Northumberland is called Wade's gap; Wætlingestrêt could only be brought into connexion with him, if such a spelling as Wædling could be made good.---Now, that son, whom Vadi carried through the sea to apprentice him to those cunning smiths the dwarfs, was Wielant, AS. Weland, Welond, ON. Völundr, but in the Vilk. saga Velint, master of all smiths, and wedded to a swan-maiden Hervör alvitr. The rightful owner of the boat, which English tradition ascribes to Wada, seems to have been Wieland; the Vilk. saga tells how he timbered a boat out of the trunk of a tree, and sailed over seas. Lamed in the sinews of his foot, he forged for himself a winged garment, and took his flight through the air. His skill is praised on all occasions, and his name coupled with every costly jewel, Vilk. saga cap. 24. Witeche, the son he had by Baduhilt, bore a hammer and tongs in his scutcheon in honour of his father; during the Mid. Ages his memory lasted among smiths, whose workshops were styled Wieland's houses, (71) and perhaps his likeness was set up or painted outside them; the ON. 'Völundar hûs' translates the Latin labyrinth; a host of similar associations must in olden times have been generally diffused, as we learn from the names of places: Welantes gruoba (pit), MB. 13, 59; Wielantes heim, MB. 28ª, 93 (an. 889); Wielantis dorf, MB. 29, 54 (an. 1246); Wielantes tanna (firs), MB. 28b, 188. 471 (an. 1280); Wielandes brunne, MB. 31, 41 (an. 817). The multiplication of such names during long centuries does not admit of their being derived from human inhabitants. The Dan. Velandsurt (-wort), Icel. Velantsurt, is the valerian, and according to Stald. 2, 450 Wielandbeere the daphne cneorum. Tradition would doubtless extend Wieland's dexterity to Wittich and to Wate, who also gets the credit of the boat, and in the Gudrun-lay of the healing art. In Sæm. 270ª, 'bœkur ofnar völundom' are stragula artificiose contexta, and any artist might be called a völundr or wielant. A gorgeous coat of mail (hrægel, OHG. hregil) is in Beow. 904 Welandes geweorc. Ælfred in Boëth. 2, 7 translates fidelis ossa Fabricii 'þæs wîsan goldsmiðes bân Welondes' (metrically: Welandes bân); evidently the idea of faber which lay in Fabricius brought to his mind the similar meaning of the Teutonic name, Weland being a cunning smith in general. For the name itself appears to contain the ON. vél [[craft, device]] = viel (ars, tecnh, OHG. list), Gramm. 1, 462, and smiðvélar meant artes fabriles; the AS. form is wîl, or better wil, Engl. wile, Fr. guile; the OHG. wiol, wiel (with broken vowel) is no longer to be found. But further, we must pre-suppose a verb wielan, AS. wëlan (fabrefacere), whose pres. part. wielant, wëland, exactly forms our proper name, on a par with wîgant, werdant, druoant, &c. ; Graff 2, 234 commits the error of citing Wielant under the root lant, with which it has no more to do than heilant (healer, saviour). The OFr. Galans (Heldens. 42) seems to favour the ON. form Völundr [root val] since Veland would rather have led to a Fr. Guilans, possibly even the ON. vala [[seeress]] (nympha) is a kindred word? An OHG. name Wieldrûd seems the very thing for a wise-woman.---This development of an intrinsic significance in the hero's name finds an unexpected confirmation in the striking similarity of the Greek fables of Hephæstus, Erichthonius and Dædalus. As Weland offers violence to Beadohild (Völundr to Böðvildr), so Hephæstus lays a snare for Athene, when she comes to order weapons of him; both Hephæstus and Völundr are punished with lameness, Erichthonius too is lame, and therefore invents the four-horse chariot, as Völundr does the boat and wings. One with Erichthonius are the later Erechtheus and his descendant Dædalus, who invented various art, a ringdance, building, &c., and on whose wings his son Icarus was soaring when he fell from the clouds. But Daidaloj (72) is daidaloj, daidaleoj, cunningly wrought, daidalma (like agalma) a work of art, and daidallein the same as our lost wielan. As our list [like the Engl. cunning and craft] has degenerated from its original sense of scientia to that of calliditas and fraus, and vél has both meanings, it is not surprising that from the skill-endowed god and hero has proceeded a deformed deceitful devil (p. 241). The whole group of Wate, Wielant, Wittich are heroes, but also ghostly beings and demigods (see Suppl.).

The Vilkinasaga brings before us yet another smith, Mîmir, by whom not only is Velint instructed in his art, but Sigfrit is brought up---another smith's apprentice. He is occasionally mentioned in the later poem of Biterolf, as Mîme the old (Heldensage, pp. 146-8); an OHG. Mîmi must have grown even more deeply into our language as well as legend: it has formed a diminutive Mîmilo (MB. 28, 87-9, annis 983-5), and Mîmâ, Mîmidrût, Mîmihilt are women's names (Trad. fuld. 489. Cod. lauresh. 211); the old name of Münster in Westphalia was Mîmigardiford, Mîmigerneford (Indices to Pertz 1.2), conf. Mîmigerdeford in Richthofen 335; the Westphalian Minden was originally Mîmidun (Pertz. 1, 368), and Memleben on the Unstrut Mîmileba. The great number of these proper names indicates a mythic being, to which Memerolt (Morolt 111) may also be related.---The elder Norse tradition names him just as often, and in several different connexions. In one place, Saxo, p. 40, (73) interweaves a Mimingus, a 'silvarum satyrus' and possessor of a sword and jewels, into the myth of Balder and Hother, and this, to my thinking, throws fresh light on the vidugáuja (wood-god) above. The Edda however gives a higher position to its Mîmir: he has a fountain, in which wisdom and understanding lie hidden; drinking of it every morning, he is the wisest, most intelligent of men, and this again reminds us of 'Wielandes brunne'. To Mîmisbrunnr came Oðinn and desired a drink, but did not receive it till he had given one of his eyes in pledge, and hidden it in the fountain (Sæm. 4ª. Sn. 17); this accounts for Oðinn being one-eyed (p. 146). In the Yngl. saga cap. 4, the Ases send Mîmir, their wisest man, to the Vanir, who cut his head off and send it back to the Ases. But Oðinn spake his spells over the head, that it decayed not, nor ceased to utter speech; and Oðinn holds conversation with it, whenever he needs advice, conf. Yngl. saga cap. 7, and Sæm. 8ª 195b. I do not exactly know whom the Völuspâ means by Mîmis synir (sons), Sæm. 8ª; Mîmameidr 109ª implies a nom. Mîmi gen. Mîma, and may be distinct from Mîmir (conf. Bragr and Bragi, p. 235).---Mîmir is no As, but an exalted being with whom the Ases hold converse, of whom they make use, the sum-total of wisdom, possibly an older nature-god; later fables degraded him into a wood-sprite or clever smith. His oneness with heroes tends to throw a divine splendour on them. Swedish folk-song has not yet forgotten Mimes å (Arvidsson 2, 316-7), and in Konga härad and Tingås socken in Småland there lies a Mimes sjö, inhabited according to legend by neckar (nixies), ibid. p. 319. Perhaps some of the forms quoted have by rights a short i, as have indisputably the AS. mimor, meomor, gemimor (memoriter notus), mimerian (memoria tenere), our Low German mimeren (day-dreaming), Brem. wtb. 3, 161, and the Memerolt, Memleben above; so that we might assume a verb meima, máim, mimum. Then the analogy of the Latin memor and Gr. mimeomai allows us to bring in the giant and centaur Mimaj, i.e., the wood-sprite again (see Suppl.).



ENDNOTES:

70. The still unprinted M. Dutch poem, De kinderen van Limburg, likewise mentions Wilant, Wedege and Mimminc. Back

71. Juxta domum Welandi fabri, Ch. ad ann. 1262 in Lang's reg. 3, 181: conf. Haupts zeitschr. 2, 248. I find also Witigo faber, MB. 7, 122. Back

72. A reduplication like paipaloj, paipaloeij tortus, arduus, paipallein torquere; conf. lailay, maimax, &c. Back

73. P. E. Müller's ed., p. 114, following which I have set aside the reading Mimringus, in spite of the Danish song of Mimering tand. Back