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Grimm's TM - Chap. 19 Chapter 19
Dat gafregin ih mit firahim firiwizzo meista (wisest men),
dat ero ni was noh ûfhimil (earth was not, nor sky),
noh paum (tree) nohheinig noh pereg (mountain) ni was,
noh sunnâ ni scein [noh sterno ni cleiz (glistened)],
no mâno (moon) ni liuhta noh der mareosêo (sea).
dô dâr niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo,
enti dô was der eino almahtico Cot (Almighty God alone).
Vara sandr ne sær, ne svalar unnir,
iörð fanz æva ne upphiminn,
gap var ginnûnga, enn gras hvergi.
sôl þat ne vissi hvar hon sali âtti,
stiörnor þat ne visso hvar þær staði âtto,
mâni þat ne vissi
hvat hann megins âtti. These hints of heathenism have gained additional force, now that
OHG. and OS. songs are found to retain the technical term muspilli = ON. muspell;
the close connexion between nifl, Niflheim, and the Nibelungen so intergrown
with our epos (p. 372) does not in any case admit of doubt. Now if these two
poles of the Scandinavian chaos entered into the belief of all Teutonic nations,
the notion of creation as a whole must have been as widely spread. It has been
shown that the Old-German opinion about giants, gods, men and dwarfs closely
agree with the Norse; I am now able further to produce, though in inverted order,
the same strange connexion described in the Edda between a giant's body and
the world's creation. Four documents, lying far apart in respect of time and place (and
these may some day be reinforced by others) transmit to us a notable account
of the creation of the first man. But, while the Edda uses up the giant's gutted
and dismembered frame to make a heaven and earth, here on the contrary the whole
world is made use of to create man's body. The oldest version is to be found in the Rituale ecclesiae Dunelmensis
(Lond. 1839), in which a scribe of the 10th
century has interpolated the following passage, an AS. translation being interlined
with the Latin: A similar
addition is made to a MS. of the Code of Emsig (Richthofen, p. 211):---'God
scôp thene êresta meneska, thet was Adam, fon achta wendem. thet bênete fon
tha stêne, thet flâsk fon there erthe, thet blôd fon tha wetere, tha herta fon
tha winde, thene thochta fon tha wolken, thene suêt fon tha dawe, tha lokkar
fon tha gerse, tha âgene fon there sunna, and tha blêrem on (blew into him)
thene helga ôm (breath), and tha scôp he Eva fon sîne ribbe, Adames liana.'
The handwriting of this document is only of the 15th
cent., but it may have been copied from an older MS. of the Emsig Code, the
Code itself being of the 14th
cent. The third passage is contained in a poem of the
12th
cent. on the four Gospels (Diemer 320, 6-20; conf. the notes to
95, 18. 27, and 320, 6):
Got mit sîner gewalt
der wrchet zeichen vil manecvalt,
der worhte den mennischen einen
ûzzen von aht teilen:
von dem leime gab er ime daz fleisch,
der tow becêchenit den sweihc (sweat),
von dem steine gab er im daz pein (bone),
des nist zwîvil nehein (is no doubt),
von den wrcen (worts) gab er ime di âdren (veins),
von dem grase gab er ime daz hâr,
von dem mere gab er ime daz plut (mood, mind),
du habet er ime begunnen
der ougen (eyes) von der sunnen.
Er verlêh ime sînen âtem (his own breath),
daz wir ime den behilten (keep it for him)
unti sînen gesîn (and be his)
daz wir ime imer wuocherente sîn (ever bear fruit). << Previous Page Next Page >>
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