Chapter 35

Sect. 23 of the Indiculus superst., 'de sulcis circa villas,' leads us to infer that round newly founded cities they ploughed furrows, whose sacredness was a safeguard against the entrance of evil. Precisely such was the Etruscan usage acc. to Varro: 'oppida condebant in Latio, Etrusco ritu, multa, id est, junctis bobus, tauro et vacca, interiore aratro circumagebant sulcum. Hoc faciebant religionis causa die auspicato, ut fossa et muro essent munita; terram unde exscalpserant fossam vocabant, et introsum factum murum, postea quod fiebat orbis, urbs.' The bull and cow were white, Ov. Fast. 4, 825 on the pomoerium of Romulus:

Inde premens stivam signavit moenia sulco,

alba jugum niveo cum bove vacca tulit.
In the Comitium a vaulted chamber was built, and stocked with the firstlings of all natural products that sustain man's life, Fest. sub v. mundus. Nieb. 1, 251.

Some superstitious rites, apparently of great antiquity, are practised on such different occasions in early and in recent times, that it is hard to make out their meaning. In Burchard, Sup. C, 195c, a waggon is divided in two, and a corpse on the bier is carried between; in I, 929 a girl suspected of pregnancy is made to pass through a harvest-wain so divided. Waggon and plough are reckoned holy implements, in the midst of which no cheating or juggling can subsist.

About walking through a cutting in the ground and the cleft of a tree, see next chap., under Remedies. It is with a different view that women creep through the stretched membrane in which a newborn foal has lain, or through a horse-collar, Swed. sela, Sup. K, 167.

Again, one is not to stride over another person (Sup. I, 45), nor slip through under the pole of a vehicle 618; nor should women in a certain condition mount across the pole or shafts 729. 925; they should also avoid having anything hanging or tangled above them 688. 933. This resembles the rule, not to turn wood in the Christmas week (Sup. K, 134), nor beat cattle with turned wood 58, lest it cause similar twistings and convulsions in man or beast.

I close with a few words on interpretation of dreams. To the A. Saxons dreám meant jubilum, ecstasy (p. 901); so is the OS. 'Drohtines drôm' = heaven, Hel. 54, 11. 63, 14. 85, 21 to be taken as 'Dei jubilum, gaudium,' as opposed to 'manno, liudo drôm' (p. 795), the transitory dream of this world. For somnium stood the AS. swefen, OS. suebhan; the ON. svefn is simply somnus, and sofna to fall asleep, MHG. entsweben is sopire, lull to sleep, which again has to do with OHG. suëp (aer), so that sleeping and dreaming properly mean trance or ecstasy, the spirit's soaring away into the air (conf. arprettan, p. 1083). This is closely conn. with Lat. sopor, and sompnus, somnus, somnium. Both OHG. and ON. seem to confine their troum, draumr to the sense of somnium. The Gothic word for oneiroj (dream) is lost to us. Instead of our proverb 'träume sind schäume,' dreams are foams, I have found a more truly rhyming 'träume sind gäume' (Ettner's Chemiker 469 and Apoth. 132), i.e. observations (MHG. goume, troume, but schûme). (51) Even antiquity did not believe in all dreams, only in difficult ones, dreamed at particular times or places. To interpret dreams is in OHG. antfristôn, N. Boeth. 51, more simply sceidan, MHG. scheiden, Diut. 3, 97, bescheiden, Walth. 95, 8. Nib. 14, 2. 19, 2; traumscheider meant soothsayer. The AS. had swefn reccan, ON. draum râða (see Suppl.).

Dreams are foretokenings of the future, rising out of images and impressions of the past; they and the figures in them might be called a writing or rune of destiny (p. 406n.), as Wolfram finely says of Parzival 245, 8: 'sus wart gesteppet im sîn troum mit swertslegen umbe den soum,' so was embroidered his dream with sword-strokes round the border. Like the birds, they are messengers of the gods, and publish their commands; but other daemonic beings send them too: 'ir boten künftigiu leit (coming sorrows) sanden im slâfe dar,' Parz. 245, 4. On p. 905-6 we had examples of the inspiring gift of poesy being imparted in a dream. As birds play the leading part in angang, as dreams themselves are birds and come flying, we can understand why even the subject-matter of a dream is so commonly a vision of birds; in some few dreams of this kind we may perhaps detect an echo of ancient myths. Kriemhild dreamt that two eagles caught and mangled (erkrummen) before her eyes the wild falcon she had reared; so Iðunn (the swallow?) was seized by the eagle Thiassi, and Oðinn the divine heron pursued by the eagle Suttûngr. Such images filled the fancy of the olden time: a couple of dancers in the Rudlieb 8, 49 are thus elegantly described: 'ille velut falco se girat, et haec ut hirundo.' In Roth. 3845: 'mir troumite nâhte von dir, wie ein valke quâme gevlogin, und vuorte dich widir over mere.' In Sv. forns. 2, 64: 'jag drömte att min herres falkar, de spände mig med sina klor, de togo mitt hjerta utur mitt bröst, och gjörde sig deraf ett bo.' And there are disquieting dreams of bears, wolves, boars p. 921-3 (see Suppl.).

Much depends on the time when and the place where dreams are dreamt. They are truest after midnight, toward morning: 'post noctem mediam, quando sunt somnia vera,' Ecbas. 227. Eracl. 3723; ghost appear just before dawn (a case on p. 894). Yet Herzeloide dreams 'umbe einen mitten tac,' Parz. 103, 25.

As it is a grave question with newly married folk, whose light shall burn longest at the wedding feast, which shall first fall asleep on the wedding night, or get up from the bridal bed (Sup. I, 15. 485. 717; M, 17); so the dreams and visions of the wedding night are prophetic (see Childerich's in Aimoin 1, 8). Such a dream of Hvîtastierna in Gothland, which acquaints her with her posterity, is mentioned in the Gutalag p. 106. No less important is the first dream in a new house (Sup. I, 123; K, 61), but you must have counted all the rafters before going to sleep. King Gorm is admonished to build a house on a spot where none had stood before, and therein to sleep and dream (Fornald. sög. 11, 4-6; conf. Saxo Gram. 179) (52); whereas Halfdan the black (Saga cap. 7) is advised to dream in a pigstye, and the dream will come true. Of dreaming in a new bed, Fornald. sög. 1, 367. Again, a dream on New-year's night comes true (Sup. I, 528). In Reinh. 88, when Chanteklêr has told his ingeniously constructed dream, it is added: 'manec troum erscheinet sich über siben jâr,' comes to pass in 7 years' time. A great many dream-interpretations, which the common people hold firmly to this day, are to be found in the very earliest times (see Suppl.).

Certain dreams are so deeply rooted in Teutonic legend, that we must place their origin far back, e.g. that of the treasure which one is to be informed of on the bridge (53) (see Suppl.).

Like dreams and angang, some other of the customs we have noticed evidently rest on the strength of first and fresh impressions.

We are glad to be rid of this heap of superstition; yet, while it filled the lives of our forefathers with fear, it ministered some comfort also.





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