Chapter 32

The 13^th century poets also use the term. Conrad in his Schmiede 664 (614), comparing the Virgin to the rod of Moses: 'dû bist diu wünschel-gerte, dar mit (wherewith) ûz einem steine wazzer wart geslagen;' and 1306 (1261): 'dû sælden (Sælden?) wünschelgerte;' in his Troj. 19888, of Helena: 'schœne als ein wünschelgerte kam sie geslichen (gliding) ûfreht,' as Danish folk-songs use lilje-vaand (lily-stalk) in a like sense; Troj. 2215: 'alles heiles ein wünschel-rîs (-spray).' Gotfried in a minnesong 2, 9: 'der gnâde ein wünschel-ruote (-rod).' Nithart in Rosenkr. 3: 'gespalten nâch de wünschelruote stam,' cleft like the w.'s stem. Albr. Titur. has more than once wünschelgerte, wünschelruote 4146, and 'wünschel-sâme des varmen' 4221, because varm, our farn (the fern, filix), is a healing plant. But the weightiest passage is that in Nib. 1064 (even if the stanza be an interpolation), just where the hoard of the Nibelungs is described:

Der wunsch lac (lay) dar under, von golde ein rüetelîn,

der (whoso) daz het erkunnet, der möhte meister sîn

wol in al der werlte über islîchen (every) man.
Among the gold and gems of the hoard lay a rod, whose miraculous virtue (wunsch) included every good, every joy; and he that knows its worth (I put only a comma after rüetelîn, and make 'daz' refer to it, not to the whole sentence) has power given him over all men; the wishing-rod not only made treasures come, it intensified and continually increased their value.

Here the wishing-rod is called golden. It was commonly picked off a hazel-bush; according to Vintler it is 'that year's shoot (sumer-late) of a wild hazel-tree.' To have it, one must cut by right-hand moonlight (crescent moon) a bough with a zwisele, zwispel (furca), and twist it three times round itself. (24) Others demand a white shoot of hazel or holy-thorn, one that has a twiele or fork, has shot up in one year, and has not a speck of old wood in it; it must stand so that the sun from east and west shines through the fork, else it is no good. He that would gather it walks in silence to the shoot, between 3 and 4 in the morning of a Sunday in a full moon, turns his face to the east, bows three times to the shoot, and says: 'God bless thee, noble spray and summer's bough!' Then follow seven spells, given in the Meckl. jb. 5, 110-7. That simile of Conrad's makes us imagine a single slender rod. Several sorts were distinguished, at least in later times: fire-rod, burn-rod, burst-rod, strike-rod, quake-rod. The hazel was not used for all, some were made of brass wire, and perhaps of gold. In Lower Germany they say wickerode, from wicken, to play the witch, tell fortunes. It is all important to hold the rod correctly in the hand (grasping the two tips, so that the stem out of which they spring shall look upwards); it will answer then, the stem will turn toward the objects it has to point out, and if there are none at hand, it will keep still. Some say that one point of the fork is held up firmly in each hand, and if nevertheless one of them bends with irresistible force to the ground, a bed of ore is not far off. There were also spells to be spoken during the process: 'Rod, rod, I ask of thee, where may the best treasure lie?' By means of the wishing-rod men thought they could discover hidden treasures, veins of ore, springs of water (hence in Switzerland they call it spring taster, Tobler 80a), nay, even murderers and thieves. (25)

In Anshelm's Bern. chron. 2, 8, I find the name glücks-stäblin, as we had a flower of luck above. The French name is baguette divinatoire: acc. to the Mém. de l'acad. Celtique 4, 267 'de coudrier, fourchue d'un côté.'

Does the ON. gambanteinn, Sæm. 77b, 85b contain a similar notion? Teinn is ramus, virga (Goth. táins, OHG. zein, AS. tân, OS. tên), (26) gamben resists all interpretation hitherto. In the last named passage gambanteinn is gathered in the forest:

Til holtz ec gêcc (I went) oc til hrâs viðar

gambantein at geta. gambantein ec gat.
Another passage Sæm. 60b deals with a 'gamban-sumbl umgeta,' which might very well mean a wishing-banquet of the gods. I would adopt the variant 'gaman-sumbl,' and explain gaman as bliss, just as wunsc seems to belong to wunna. Yet in AS. we find gomban gyldan, Beow. 21, a distinct word from gomen (gaudium). Again ''ams vendi ec þic drêp,''with wand of taming I thee smote, Sæm. 84b, is worth weighing: tams vöndr is undoubtedly a rod of magic influence.

A story in full detail of a wishing-staff that St. Columban gave away to a poor man, and which he smashed at the bidding of his wife, may be found in Adamanni Scoti vita S. Columbae cap. 24 (Canisii Lect. antiq., tom. 5).

And now our surest guide to the original meaning of the wishing-rod is the khrukeion of Hermes (the caduceus of Mercury): a staff with two snakes twining round it. But these snakes appear to have been first formed by the boughs of the olive, so that the older rabdoj (Od. 24, 2) probably had the forked figure of our wishing-rod ['three times twisted,' p. 975]. The Hymn of Merc. 527 calls it olbou kai ploutou rabdon, cruseihn, tripethlon golden (as in the Nib. Lay), three-leaved, bringing luck and wealth. Now, seeing that Mercury wears the winged petasus too, as Wuotan was recognisable by his pilei umbraculum, that in this again there dwells the idea of a wishing-hat (p. 869), and that the bliss-bestowing wishing-rod must be referred to a personal Wish, consequently to Wuotan; I think, in the concurrence of all these resemblances there lies an incontrovertible proof of the primitive unborrowed identity of Wuotan with Mercury. Rudolf in his Barl. 274, 25 may very well have meant 'des Wunsches bluome,' as the numerous examples from his Gerhart (p. 140) shew how familiar this personification was to him. So in Tit. 5161-9: 'gezwîet vil der wünschelrîse' and 'wünschel-berndez rîs' (see Suppl.).

The mythical aspect of mountain-prisoned treasures, as of mountain-prisoned heroes and gods, has led us to Wuotan the supreme maker and giver of all things, 'to whom are known all hidden treasures,' Yngl. saga, cap. 7.

Some other things, beside flowers, herbs and rods, are helpful to the lifting of treasure. Thus a black he-goat that has not a light hair on him is to be sought out and tied to the spot where money lies hidden, like a sacrifice to the spirit who guard it (Mone's Anz. 6, 305). Some prescribe a black fowl without even the smallest white feather, else the devil breaks the lifter's neck for him (Bechst. 4, 207). Enchanted money has had the curse pronounced on it, that he alone shall find it who ploughs it out with a pair of black cocks; one man carved himself a tiny plough for the purpose, and accomplished the lifting, Reusch's Samland p. 29 (see Suppl.).

But on the hoard lie dogs, snakes, dragons to guard it, DS. no. 13. 159. Schm. 2, 209.

In Annales Corbej. ad an. 1048 (Paullini p. 386): 'Aiunt in Brunsberg magnum thesaurum absconditum esse, quem niger canis custodit cum oculis igneis;' and in the Carmen de Brunsbergo (Paullini p. 599):

Horrendus canis est tenebrosum vinctus ad antrum,

thesauri custos, qui latet imus ibi;

igneus est visus, color atque nigerrimus illi,

os patulum, et cunctis halitus usque gravis.

Under the pear-tree men saw burning coals, and at night a black poodle lying (Mone's Anz. 7, 227). On one chest in the vault lay a toad, on the other a white dog: when the peasant's wife struck about with a rod she had got from the white woman, the dog turned black as coal, at which the woman was so frightened she broke silence, and the deliverance came to nothing (ib. 5, 320).

No beast has more to do with gold and treasures than the snake, which coils itself down on the gold-heap (p. 689), shakes off sparkles (p. 690-1), wear gold crowns (p. 686). We saw the white woman herself appear half or wholly in serpent shape. by the water outside the gold cavern a huge hissing snake keeps watch: hit him boldly on the head, he will arch himself into a bridge over the water for you, and you may step over it with a stout heart, and bring away as much golden earth as you will (Bechst. 4, 174). Fani-gold seems to be gold that has lain in fens with the snakes and dragons (p. 531).

Our earliest antiquity has famous legends of snakes and dragons on the gold (p. 689-90). It is worth noting, that men were fond of giving the shape of the snake to costly golden ware in the way of ornaments and weapons. A heap of gold glittered in the sun, and a black worm lay coiled around it, yet so that he did not reach quite round, and a span's breadth was left open: at this spot the labouring man who had spied the hoard stept in and gathered gold. When he had crammed his pockets full and even the smock he had pulled off, it came into his head to call up a companion and bid her load herself with the rest of the treasure; but his voice was drowned in the terrible roar that suddenly arose: 'out with the coin, out with the coin!' was the cry, and the terrified man flung all the money away, and began to flee; in a moment worm and treasure sank into the mountain, and the earth closed up again, the uproar was over and the sun shone sweetly; only a few coins remained, which when thrown away had fallen outside the serpent ring (Reusch's Samland no. 3).

The great hoard on which Fâfnir lay was made up of gold that the gods had been obliged to hand over for the covering and cramming of Otter, but which Loki had previously taken from the dwarf Andvari. Sigurðr, having got it into his power after slaying the dragon, conveyed it all safely away on Grani's back, hence gold was named byrðr Grana (Granonis sarcina, OHG. would be Krauin purdi), Sn. 139. It is remarkable that in a Swed. folksong (Arvidsson 2, 193) the maiden awaiting her betrothed says:

Vore det den ungersven (were he the swain) som jag skulle ha,

så förde han det guldet på gångarens bak!

According to our lay of the Hürnen (horny) Sîfrit, (27) though the hero still wins the hoard by slaying the dragon of Drachenstein, and loads it on his steed (166, 4), the origin of the gold is related differently. It is the Nibelinges hort, and Nibling king of dwarfs leaves it to his three sons (13, 4. 14, 3. 134, 3. 168, 2), two of whom, when their mountain began to move (in an earthquake?) and threatened to fall in, carried it away without telling their brother Eugel, (28) and hid it in a cave under the 'dragon-stone,' where Siegfried afterwards found it (133, 4. 134, 3. 135, 1). A dragon that always after five years and a day takes human shape for one day (29) at Easter, had charge of the treasure and of a beautiful princess, a white woman, whom Siegfried set free together with the treasure.

Some things are left obscure in this account, which are cleared up in the epic of the Nibelungs itself. Siegfried acquires the hort Niblunges not when he kills the lintrache (lithe-dragon), but when Schilbunc and Niblunc asked him to divide the treasure, a thing they could not manage themselves; and neither could he (94, 5). The hoard is carried 'uz eime holn berge;' apparently it belonged to dwarfs, so that Schilbunc and Niblunc were of the elf kindred. Thus in both lays the hoard originates with dwarfs, and in the Edda with dwarf Andvari; as elvish beings they are by nature collectors and keepers of subterranean treasure, haunting the mountains as they do (pp. 448. 452), and they delude (pp. 464. 915) like spectres. Then the wishing-hat is brought to mind by the cover-capes and mist-mantles of dwarfs (p. 915); the dwarf race, like the dragons, (30) cherishes and guards treasures, and as Dame Holda travels with the Furious Host and sits locked up in the mountain, she too is connected with the elves (p. 452). Entrance into the caves of dwarfs is found as into enchanted mountains, and men are carried off to spend some time in the society of elvish sprites (p. 494), as they do in Dame Venus' mount (p. 935).

The Nibelung and Schilbung wished to have their father's property divided, is asserted also in Bit. 80a; that they could not divide the treasure, is a highly mythic feature, which I shall illustrate further on, when I come to treat of Wishing-gear.

As a union with goddesses, wise-women, white-women, results in danger to heroes, so does their winning of the hoard turn to their misfortune. He that has lifted the treasure must die soon (Mone's Anz. 7, 51-3). Because Andvari laid a curse upon the ring that Loki extorted from him, the same ring brought destruction upon Hreiðmar and his sons, who insisted on having it, and upon Sigurð and Brynhild, whose betrothal was accomplished by it (Sn. 140).

An ON. name for gold is 'orms beðr' or 'Fâfnis bœli,' worm's bed, dragon's couch, who lies brooding on it, so to speak. Bûi turns into a worm, and lies on his gold-chests, Fornm. sög. 11, 158. draco thesauri custos, Saxo Gram. 101. 'incubas gazae ut magnus draco, custos Scythici luci,' Martial 12, 53; miser and dragon have little joy of their wealth.

Dragons guarding treasure were also known to the Orientals and Greeks. The hundred-headed sleepless one guarded the golden apples of the Hesperian grove (Scythici luci), Photius, Bekk. 150, 6. 16. The ancients were equally familiar with the notion of griffins watching over gold: 'grîfen golt,' Parz. 71, 17 seq.

Sometimes, on the spot where treasure sparkle, a calf is said to lie (Reusch no. 47), not in my opinion as keeper, but as part, of the treasure. For treasure-diggers profess to look for the golden calf, and for the golden hen and twelve chickens, (31) by which plainly something mythical is meant (see Suppl.).

A statement in the Renner 5100 deserves attention, that all buried, i.e. unlifted unredeemed treasures will one day be Antichrist's, whose coming we have already seen mixing itself up in many ways with the fable of the Furious Host and mountain prisoned heroes.

The legends largely run over into each other: what is told of the doings of elves and dwarfs in mountain-clefts is also related of noisy sprites haunting deserted houses (p. 514). In one enchanted castle a maiden with her treasures waits deliverance (Kinderm. no. 4), another is possessed with devils (ib. no. 81). And here again comes up the feature, that the spirit unblest carries his head under his arm (ib. 3, 15) like the leader of the Furious Host, and that he gets his beard shaved by the stranger who is to take off the ban (ib. 3, 9. Mone's Anz. 7, 365. Baader's Bad. sagen no. 275); conf. the well-known fairytales in Musæus, and Simpliciss. 1713. 1, 617, who also knows the legend of the waste castle and the beard-shaving (see Suppl.). The old fable of the water-bear lodges schrats (night-hags) in the forsaken house, and Beowulf rids the royal hall of Grendel's nightly visits. A house like this, in which all is not right, seems to be called in MHG. wunder-burc: 'ich sunge ouch wie der (trache?) lît, der manigen in der wunderburc verslunden hât dur sînen gît,' MS. 2, 177a.




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