Chapter 15

Another Oðinsson, Skiöldr, is the famed ancestral hero of the Danes, from whom are derived all the Skiöldûngar (Sn. 146); he may have been most nearly related to the people of Schonen, as in the Fornm. sög. 5, 239 he is expressly called Skânûnga goð (see p. 161), and was probably worshipped as a god. In Saxo Gram. he does not take the lead, but follows after Humblus, Dan (49) and Lother; Skiold himself has a son Gram, (50) from whom come Hadding and then Frotho; but the AS. genealogy places its Scild after Sceáf, and singularly makes them both ancestors of Oðinn. From Sceáf descends Sceldwa, from him consecutively Beaw, Tætwa, Geát, and after several more generations comes Wôden last. The ON. version of the lineage is in harmony with this; and even in the Gothic pedigree, which only begins with Gáuts, we may suppose a Skáufs, Skildva, Táitva to have preceded, to whom the OHG. names Scoup, Scilto, Zeizo would correspond.---None however is so interesting as Sceldwa's son, the Anglo-Saxon Beaw, called by the Scandinavians Biar, Biaf, but in the living AS. epos Beowulf. It is true, the remarkable poem of that name is about a second and younger Beowulf, in whom his forefather's name repeats itself; but fortunately the opening lines allude to the elder Beowulf, and call his father Scild (Goth. Skildus, agreeing with Skiöldr) a Scêfing, i.e., son of Sceáf. Beaw is a corruption of Beow, and Beow an abbreviation of Beowulf: it is the complete name that first opens to us a wider horizon. Beowulf signifies bee-wolf (OHG. Piawolf?), and that is a name for the woodpecker, a bird of gay plumage that hunts after bees, of whom antiquity has many a tale to tell. (51) Strange to say, the classical mythus (above, pp. 206, 249) makes this Picus a son of Saturn, inasmuch as it either identifies him with Zeus who is succeeded by a Hermes, or makes him nourisher of Mars's sons and father of Faunus. We see Picus (Picumnus) interwoven into the race of Kronos, Zeus, Hermes and Ares, the old Bohemian Stracec = picus into that of Sitivrat, Kirt and Radigost, as Beowulf is into that of Geát and Wôden. If the groups differ in the details of their combination, their agreement as wholes is the more trustworthy and less open to suspicion. And just as the footprints of Saturn were traceable from the Slavs to the Saxons and to England, but were less known to the Northmen, so those of the divine bird in Stracec and Beowulf seem to take the same course, and never properly to reach Scandinavia. The central Germans stood nearer to Roman legend, although no actual borrowing need have taken place.

What a deep hold this group of heroes had taken, is evidenced by another legend. Sceáf (i.e., manipulus frumenti) takes his name from the circumstance, that when a boy he was conveyed to the country he was destined to succour, while asleep (52) on a sheaf of corn in the boat. The poetry of the Lower Rhine and Netherlands in the Mid. Ages is full of a similar story of the sleeping youth whom a swan conducts in his ship to the afflicted land; and this swan-knight is pictured approaching out of paradise, from the grave, as Helias, whose divine origin is beyond question. Helias, Gerhart or Loherangrin of the thirteenth century is identical then with a Scôf or Scoup of the seventh and eighth, different as the surroundings may have been, for the song of Beowulf appears to have transferred to Scild what belonged of right to his father Sceáf. The beautiful story of the swan is founded on the miraculous origin of the swan-brothers, which I connect with that of the Welfs; both however seem to be antique lineage-legends of the Franks and Swabians, to which the proper names are mostly wanting. Had they been preserved, many another tie between the heroes and the gods would come to light. (53)---Further, to Sceldwa or Skiöldr belongs obviously the name Schiltune in the Tirol and Parzival, (54) as the name Schilbunc, Nib. 88, 3, points to a race of Scilpungâ, corresponding to the AS. Scilfingas, ON. Scilfîngar, of whom Skelfir, Scilfe, Scilpi is to be regarded as the ancestor. This Skelfir the Fornald. sög. 2, 9 makes the father of Skiöldr, so that the Skilfînga and Skiöldînga ætt fall into one. Either Scelf is here confounded with Scêf, or Scêf must be altered to Scelf, but the frequent occurrence of the form Sceáf, and its interpretation (from sheaf), seem alike to forbid this (see Suppl.).

As the Skiöldûngar descend from Skiöldr, so do the Giukûngar from Giuki = Gibika, Kipicho, with whom the Burgundian line begins: if not a god himself (p. 137), he is a divine hero that carries us back very near to Wuotan. The Gibichensteine (-stones) moreover bear witness to him, and it is to the two most eminent women of this race that Grimhildensteine, Brunhildensteine are allotted. (55) Fraue Uote however appears as ancestress of the stock. (56) It has not been so much noticed as it ought, that in the Lex Burg, Gislahari precedes Gundahari by a whole generation, whilst our epic (Nibelungen) makes Gîselhere Gunthere's younger brother, and the Edda never names him at all. The Law makes no mention of any brothers, and Gîselher the young has merely the name of his elder kinsman. Gêrnôt (from gér = gáis) and Gîselher seem to be identical (conf. Gramm. 2, 46). But the Norse Guttormr can hardly be a distortion of Godomar, for we meet with him outside of the legend, e.g., in Landn. 1, 18. 20, where the spelling Guðormr (Guntwurm) would lead us to identify him with Gunthere, and in Saxo. Gram. are found several Guthormi (see Suppl.). Then Hagano the one-eyed, named from hagan (spinosus, Waltharius 1421), is 'more than heroic'. (57)

Even deeper reaching roots must be allowed to the Welisungs, their name brings us to a divine Valis who has disappeared (conf. the ON. Vali, p. 163), but the mere continuance of an OHG. Welisunc is a proof of the immemorial diffusion of the Völsûngasaga itself (see Suppl.). How, beginning with Wuotan, it goes on to Sigi, Sigimunt, Sigifrit, Sintarfizilo, has been alluded to on p. 367, and has already been treated of elsewhere. (58) With Sigfri stands connected Helfrich, Chilpericus, ON. Hialprekr. It is worthy of note, that the AS. Beowulf calls Sigfrit Sigemund, and Sigmundr is a surname of Oðinn besides. (59) Such a flood of splendour falls on Siegfried in the poems, that we need not stick at trifles; his whole nature has evident traces of the superhuman brought up by an elf Regino, beloved by a valkyr Brunhild, instructed in his destiny by the wise man Grîpir, he wears the helmet of invisibility, is vulnerable only on one spot in his body, as Achilles was in the heel, and he achieves the rich hoard of the Nibelungs. His slaying of the dragon Fâfnir reminds us of Puqwn (60) whom Apollo overcame, and as Python guarded the Delphic aracle, the dying Fâfnir prophesies. (61) We must take into account Loðfâfnir Sæm. 24, 30. Sinfiötli, who, when a boy, kneads snakes into the dough, is comparable to the infant Hercules tested by serpents.

Through Siegfried the Frankish Welisungs get linked to the Burgundian Gibichungs, and then both are called Nibelungs.

Among Gothic heroes we are attracted by the Ovida and Cnivida in Jornandes cap. 22, perhaps the same as Offa and Cnebba in the Mercian line. But of far more consequence is the great Gothic family of Amals or Amalungs, many of whose names in the Jornandean genealogy seem corrupt. The head of them all was Gapt, which I emend to Gaut (Gáuts), and so obtain an allusion to the divine office of casting [giessen, ein-guss, in-got] and meting (pp. 22. 142); he was a god, or son of a god (p. 164), and is even imported into the Saxon lines as Geát, Wôdelgeát, Sigegeát (p. 367). In this Gothic genealogy the weak forms Amala, Isarna, Ostrogotha, Ansila, confirm what we have observed in Tuisco, Inguio, Iscio, Irmino; but those best worth nothing are Amala, after whom the most powerful branch of the nation is named, Ermanaricus and Theodericus. Ermanaricus must be linked with Irmino and the Herminones, as there is altogether a closer tie between Goths and Saxons (Ingaevones and Herminones) as opposed to the Franks (Iscaevones), and this shows itself even in the later epics.---Amongst the Amalungs occur many names compounded with vulv, which reminds us of their side-branch, the Wülfings; if it be not too bold, I would even connect Isarna (Goth. Eisarna) with Isangrim. To me the four sons of Achiulf seem worthy of particular notice: Ansila, Ediulf, Vuldulf, and Hermenrich. Of the last we have just spoken, and Ansila means the divine; our present concern is with Ediulf and Vuldulf. I find that Jornandes, cap. 54, ascribes to the Scyrians also two heroes Edica and Vulf; the Rugian Odoacer has a father Eticho and a brother Aonulf; and the legend on the origin of the Welfs has the proper names Isenbart, Irmentrud, Welf and Etico constantly recurring. Now, welf is strictly catulus (Huelf, whelp, ON. hvelpr [[whelp]]), and distinct from wolf; natural history tells us of several strong courageous animals that are brought into the world blind; the Langobardic and Swabian genealogies play upon dogs and wolves being exposed; and as Odoacer, Otacher (a thing that has never till now been accounted for) is in some versions called Sipicho, ON. Bicki, and this means dog (bitch), I suspect a similar meaning in Edica, Eticho, Ediulf, Odacar, which probably affords a solution of the fable about the 'blind Schwaben and Hessen': their lineage goes back to the blind Welfs. In the genealogy Ediulf is described as brother to Ermenrich, in later sagas Bicki is counsellor to Iörmunrekr; the Hildebrandslied has but too little to say of Otacher. Then Vuldulf also (perhaps Vuldr-ulf) will signify a glorious beaming wolf (see Suppl.).---As Siegfried eclipsed all other Welisungs, so did Dieterich all the Amalungs; and where the epos sets them one against the other, each stands in his might, unconquered, unapproachable. Dietrich's divine herohood comes out in more than one feature, e.g., his fiery breath, and his taking the place of Wuotan or Frô (p. 213-4) at the head of the wild host, as Dietrichbern or Bernhard. The fiery breath brings him nearer to Donar, with whom he can be compared in another point also: Dieterich is wounded in the forehead by an arrow, and a piece of it is left inside him, for which reason he is called the deathless; (62) not otherwise did the half of Hrûngnir's hein (stone wedge) remain in Thor's head, and as Grôa's magic could not loosen it, it sticks there still, and none shall aim withthe like stones, for it makes the piece in the god's forehead stir (Sn. 109-111). (63) This horn-like stone was very likely shown in images, and enhanced their godlike appearance.




ENDNOTES:

49. Dan, in Saxo's view the true ancestor of the Danes, is called in the Rîgsmâl Danr, and placed together with Danpr. Sæm. 106b. Back

50. Elsewhere Gramr is the proper name of a particular sword, while the appellative gramr denotes a king. Back

51. Can the name in Upper Germany for the turdus or oriolus galbula, Birolf, Pirolf, brother Pirolf (Frisch 1, 161), possibly stand for Biewolf (or Biterolf)? The Serbs call it Urosh, and curiously this again is a hero's name. Conf. the Finn. uros [with heros?], p. 341. Back

52. Umborwesende? Beow. 92. Back

53. The ship that brought Sceáf and the swan-knight carries them away again at last, but the reason is disclosed only in later legend: it was forbidden to inquire into their origin, Parz. 825, 19. Conr., Schwanritter 1144-73. Back

54. Zeitschr. für deut. alterth. 1, 7. Back

55. Brudestein, lectulus Brunihilde, Kriemhiltenstein, Criemildespil (Heldensage p. 155); Krimhilte graben (Weisth. 1, 48); in loco Grimhiltaperg nominato (Juvavia p. 137); de Crimhilteperc, MB. 7. 498. Back

56. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 21. Back

57. Lachmann's examination of the whole Nibelung legend, p. 22. Back

58. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 2-6. Back

59. In the Copenh. ed. of the Edda, Sæm. 2, 889 Sigemon, and in Finn Magn. lex. 643 Segemon, is said to have been a name of the Celtic Mars; I suppose on the ground of the inscriptt. in Gruter lviii. 5: Marti Segomoni sacrum.......in civitate Sequanorum; and ii. 2: Diis deabus omnibus Veturius L.L. Securius (al. Segomanus) pro se quisque (see Suppl.). Back

60. Almost the same, granting a change of th into f (as in qhr, fhr); of our â standing for Greek u there are more examples: fnâsu, blâsu = pneuw, fluw. Back

61. The epithet sveinn (Sw. sven, Dan. svend) given to the Norse Sigurðr apears already in Fâfnir's address 'sveinn ok sveinn!' and in the headings to ch. 142-4 of the Vilk. saga. The same hero then is meant by the Sivard snaresvend (fortis puer) of the Danish folk-song, who, riding on Grani, accompanies to Askereia (see ch. XXXI), and by Svend Felding or Fälling of the Danish folk-tale (Thiele 2, 64-7. Müller's sagabibl. 2, 417-9). He drank out of a horn handed to him by elvish beings, and thereby acquired the strength of twelve men. Swedish songs call him Sven Färling or Fotling; Arvidsson 1, 129. 415. Back

62. Simon Keza, chron. Hungaror. 1, 11. 12. Heinr. von Müglein (in Kovachich p. 8); conf. Deutsche heldensage p. 164. Back

63. Hence the proverb: seint losnar hein! höfði Thôrs. Back