Part 4

Thus Nanna is the daughter of the ruler of the moon, of "the ward of the atmosphere". This alone indicates that she herself was mythologically connected with the phenomena which pertain to her father's domain of activity, and in all probability was a moon-dis (goddess). This assumption is fully confirmed by a contribution to Teutonic mythology rescued in Germany, the so-called Merseburg formula, which begins as follows:

Of the names occurring in this strophe Uodan-Odin, Baldur, Sunna (synonym of Sol - Alvíssmál 16; Younger Edda - Nafnaþulur), Friia-Frigg, and Volla-Fulla are well known in the Icelandic mythic records. Only Phol and Sinhtgunt are strangers to our mythologists, though Phol-Falr surely ought not to be so.

In regard to the German form Phol, we find that it has by its side the form Fal in German names of places connected with fountains. Jacob Grimm has pointed out a "Pholes" fountain in Thuringia, a "Fals" fountain in the Frankish Steigerwald, and in this connection a "Baldur" well in Reinphaltz. In the Danish popular traditions Baldur's horse had the ability to produce fountains by tramping on the ground, and Baldur's fountain in Seeland is said to have originnated in this manner (cp. P. E. Muller on Saxo, Hist., 120). In Saxo, too, Baldur gives rise to wells (Victor Balderus, ut afflictum siti militem opportuni liquoris beneficio recrearet, novos humi latices terram altius rimatus operuit - Book III) ["The victorious Balder, wishing to provide water as due refreshment for his thirsty soldiers, bored deep into the earth and discovered underground springs" - Evans, p. 73].

This very circumstance seems to indicate that Phol, Fal, was a common epithet or surname of Baldur in Germany, and it must be admitted that this meaning must have appeared to the German mythologists to be confirmed by the Merseburg formula; for in this way alone could it be explained in a simple and natural manner, that Baldur is not named in the first line as Odin's companion, although he actually attends Odin, and although the misfortune that befals "Baldur's foal" is the chief subject of the narrative, while Phol on the other hand is not mentioned again in the whole formula, although he is named in the first line as Odin's companion.

This simple and incontrovertible conclusion, that Phol amid Baldur in the Merseburg formula are identical is put beyond all doubt by a more thorough examination of the Norse records. In these it is demonstrated that the name Falr was also known in the North as an epithet of Baldur.

The first books of Saxo are based exclusively on the myths concerning gods and heroes. There is not a single person, not a single name, which Saxo did not borrow from the mythic traditions. Among them is also a certain Fjallerus, who is mentioned in Book IV, p. 100. In the question in regard to the Norse form which was Latinised into Fjallerus, we must remember that Saxo writes Hjallus (Book VII, pp. 230-1) for Hjali, and alternately Colo, Collo, and Collerus (Hist., pp. 33, 82, 118), and that he uses the broken form Bjarbi for Barri (Hist., p. 153). In accordance with this the Latin form Fjallerus must correspond to the Norse Falr, and there is, in fact, in the whole Old Norse literature, not a single name to be found corresponding to this excepting Falr, for the name Fjalarr, the only other one to be thought of in this connection, should, according to the rules followed by Saxo, be Latinised into Fjallarus or Fjalarus, but not into Fjallerus.

Of this Fjallerus Saxo relates that he was banished by an enemy, and the report says that Fjallerus betook himself to the place which is unknown to our populations, and which is called Ódáins-akur (quem ad locum, cui Undensakre nomen est, nostris ignotum populis concessisse est fama - p. 100).

The mythology mentions only a single person who by an enemy was transferred to Ódáinsakur, and that is Baldur. (Of Ódáinsakur and Baldur's abode there, see Nos. 44-53.).

The enemy who transfers Falr to the realm of immortality is, according to Saxo, a son of Horvendillus, that is to say, a son of the mythological Örvandill, Groa's husband and Svipdag's father (see Nos. 108, 109). Svipdag has already once before been mistaken by Saxo for Hotherus (see No. 101). Hotherus is, again, the Latin form for Höður. Hence it is Baldur's banishment by Höður to the subterranean realms of immortality of which we here read in Saxo where the latter speaks of Fal's banishment to Ódáinsakur by a son of Orvandil.

When Baldur dies by a flaug hurled by Höður he stands in the midst of a rain of javelins. He is the centre of a mannhringr, where all throw or shoot at him: sumir skjóta á hann, sumir höggva til, sumir berja grjóti (Gylfaginning). In this lies the mythical explanation of the paraphrase Fal's rain, which occurs in the last strophe of a poem attributed to the skald Gisli Sursson. In Gisli's saga we read that he was banished on account of manslaughter, but by the aid of his faithful wife he was able for thirteen years to endure a life of persecutions and conflicts, until he finally was surprised and fell by the weapons of his foes. Surrounded by his assailants, he is said to have sung the strophe in question, in which he says that "the beloved, beautiful, brave Fulla of his hall," that is to say, his wife, "is to enquire for him, her friend," for whose sake "Fal's rain" now "falls thick and fast," while "keen edges bite him". In a foregoing strophe Gisli has been compared with a "Baldur of the shield," and this shield-Baldur now, as in the Baldur of the myth, is the focus of javelins and swords, while he, like Baldur, has a beautiful and faithful wife, who, like Nanna, is to take his death to heart. If the name Nanna, as has been assumed by Vigfusson and others, is connected with the verb nenna, and means "the brave one," then rekkilát Fulla, "the brave Fulla of Gisli's hall," is an all the more appropriate reference to Nanna, since Fulla and she are intimately connected in the mythology, and are described as the warmest of friends (Gylfaginning). Briefly stated: in the poem Gisli is compared with Baldur, his wife with Nanna, his death with Baldur's death, and the rain of weapons by which he falls with Fal's rain.

In a strophe composed by Refr (Skáldskaparmál 9) the skald offers thanks to Odin, the giver of the skaldic art. The Asa-father is here called Fals hrannvala brautar fannar salar valdi ("The ruler of the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal"). This long paraphrase means, as has also been assumed by others, the ruler of heaven. Thus heaven is designated as "the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal". The "drift" which belongs to heaven, and not to the earth, is the cloud. The heavens are "the hall of the cloud". But in order that the word "drift" might be applied in this manner it had to be united with an appropriate word, showing that the heavens were meant. This is done by the adjective phrase "of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal". Standing alone, "the drift of the way of the billow-falcons" could not possibly mean anything else than the billow white with foam, since "billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for ships, and the "way of the billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for the sea. By adding the name Falr the meaning is changed from "sea" to "sky". By Fal's "billow-falcons" must therefore be meant objects whose course is through the air, just as the course of the ships is on the sea, and which traverse the drift of the sky, the cloud, just as the ships plough through the drift of the sea, the white-crested billow. Such a paraphrase could not possibly avoid drawing the fancy of the hearers and readers to the atmosphere strewn with clouds and penetrated by sunbeams, that is, to Odin's hall. Baldur is a sun-god, as his myth, taken as a whole, plainly shows, and as is manifested by his epithet: rauðbríkar ríkur rækir (see No. 53). Thus Fal, like Baldur, is a divinity of the sun, a being which sends the sunbeams down through the drifts of the clouds. As he, furthermore, like Baldur, stood in a rain of weapons under circumstances sufficiently familiar for such a rain to be recognised when designated as Fal's, and as be, finally, like Baldur, was sent by an opponent to the realm of immortality in the lower world, then Falr and Baldur must be identical.

Their identity is furthermore confirmed by the fact that Baldur in early Christian times was made a historical king of Westphalia. The statement concerning this, taken from Anglo-Saxon or German sources, has entered into the foreword to Gylfaginning. Nearly all lands and peoples have, according to the belief of that time, received their names from ancient chiefs. The Franks were said to be named after one Francio, the East Goth after Ostrogotha, the Angles after Angul, Denmark after Dan, &c. The name Phalia, Westphalia, was explained in the same manner, and as Baldur's name was Phol, Fal, this name of his gave rise to the name of the country in question. For the same reason the German poem Biterolf makes Baldur (Paltram) into king ze Pülle. (Compare the local name Pölde, which, according to J. Grimm, is found in old manuscripts written Polidi and Pholidi.) In the one source Baldur is made a king in Pholidi, since Phol is a name of Baldur, and in the other source he is for the same reason made a king in Westphalia, since Phal is a variation of Phol, and likewise designated Baldur. "Biterolf" has preserved the record of the fact that Baldur was not only the stateliest hero to be found, but also the most pure in morals, and a man much praised. Along with Baldur, Gylfaginning speaks of another son of Odin, Siggi, who is said to have become a king in Frankland. The same reason for which Fal-Baldur was made a king in Westphalia also made the apocryphal Siggi in question the progenitor of Frankian kings. The Frankian branch to which the Merovingian kings belonged bore the name Sigambrians, and to explain this name the son Siggi was given to Odin, and he was made the progenitor and eponym of the Sigambrians.

After this investigation which is to be continued more elaborately in another volume, I now return to the Merseburg formula:

"Falr and Odin
Went to the wood,
Then the foot was sprained
Of Balder's foal".

With what here is said about Baldur's steed, we must compare what Saxo relates about Baldur himself: Adeo in adversam corporis valetudinem incidit, ut ni pedibus quidem, incedere posset (Book III).

The misfortune which happened first to Baldur and then to Baldur's horse must be counted among the warnings which foreboded the death of the son of Odin. There are also other passages which indicate that Baldur's horse must have had a conspicuous signification in the mythology, and the tradition concerning Baldur as rider is preserved not only in northern sources (Lokasenna, Gylfaginning), and in the Merseburg formula, but also in the German poetry of the middle ages. That there was some witchcraft connected with this misfortune which happened to Baldur's horse is evident from the fact that the magic songs sung by the goddesses accompanying him availed nothing. According to the Norse ancient records, the women particularly exercise the healing art of witchcraft (compare Gróa and Sigurdrífa), but still Odin has the profoundest knowledge of the secrets of this art; he is galdurs faðir (Vegtamskviða 3). And so Odin comes in this instance, and is successful after the goddesses have tried in vain. We must fancy that the goddesses make haste to render assistance in the order in which they ride in relation to Baldur, for the event would lose its seriousness if we should conceive Odin as being very near to Baldur from the beginning, but postponing his activity in order to shine afterwards with all the greater magic power, which nobody disputed.

The goddesses constitute two pairs of sisters: Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, and Frigg and her sister Fulla. According to the Norse sources, Frigg is Baldur's mother. According to the same records, Fulla is always near Frigg, enjoys her whole confidence, and wears a diadem as a token of her high rank among the goddesses. An explanation of this is furnished by the Merseburg formula, which informs us that Fulla is Frigg's sister, and so a sister of Baldur's mother. And as Odin is Baldur's father, we find in the Merseburg formula the Baldur of the Norse records, surrounded by the kindred assigned to him in these records.

Under such circumstances it would be strange, indeed, if Sinhtgunt and the sun-dis, Sunna, did not also belong to the kin of the sun-god, Baldur, as they not only take part in this excursion of the Baldur family, but are also described as those nearest to him, and as the first who give him assistance.

The Norse records have given to Baldur as wife Nanna, daughter of that divinity which under Odin's supremacy is the ward of the atmosphere and the owner of the moon-ship. If the continental Teutons in their mythological conceptions also gave Baldur a wife devoted and faithful as Nanna, then it would be in the highest degree improbable that the Merseburg formula should not let her be one of those who, as a body-guard, attend Baldur on his expedition to the forest. Besides Frigg and Fulla, there are two goddesses who accompany Baldur. One of them is a sun-dis, as is evident from the name Sunna; the other, Sinhtgunt, is, according to Bugge's discriminating interpretation of this epithet, the dis "who night after night has to battle her way". A goddess who is the sister of the sun-dis, but who not in the daytime but in the night has to battle on her journey across the sky, must be a goddess of the moon, a moon-dis. This moon-goddess is the one who is nearest at hand to bring assistance to Baldur. Hence she can be none else than Nanna, who we know is the daughter of the owner of the moon-ship. The fact that she has to battle her way across the sky is explained by the Norse mythic statement, according to which the wolf-giant Hati is greedy to capture the moon, and finally secures it as his prey (Völuspá, Gylfaginning). In the poem about Helgi Hjörvarðsson, which is merely a free reproduction of the materials in the Baldur-myth (which shall be demonstrated in the second part of this work), the giant Hati is conquered by the hero of the poem, a Baldur figure, whose wife is a dis, who, "white" herself, has a shining horse (str. 26, 28), controls weather and harvests (str. 28), and makes nightly journeys on her steed, and "inspects the harbours" (str. 26).

The name Nanna (from the verb nenna; cp. Vigfusson, Lex.) means "the brave one". With her husband she has fought the battles of light, and in the Norse, as in the Teutonic, mythology, she was with all her tenderness a heroine.

The Merseburg formula makes the sun-dis and the moon-dis sisters. The Norse variation of the Teutonic myth has done the same. Vafþrúðnismal and Gylfaginning 11 inform us that the divinities which govern the chariots of the sun and moon were brother and sister, but from the masculine form Máni Gylfaginning has drawn the false conclusion that the one who governed the car of the moon was not a sister but a brother of the sun. In the mythology a masculine divinity Máni was certainly known, but he was the father of the sun-dis and moon-dis, and identical with Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr, the owner of the moon-ship. The god Máni is the father of the sun-dis for the same reason as Nott is the mother of Dag.

Vafþrúðnismál informs us that the father of the managers of the sun- and moon-cars was called Mundilföri. We are already familiar with this mythic personality (see Nos. 81-83) as the one who is appointed to superintend the mechanism of the world, by whose Möndull the starry firmament is revolved. It is not probable that the power governing the motion of the stars is any other than the one who under Odin's supremacy is ruler of the sun and moon, and ward of all the visible phenomena in space, among which are also the stars. As, by comparison of the old records, we have thus reached the conclusion that the managers of the sun and moon are daughters of the ward of the atmosphere, and as we have also learned that they are daughters of him who superintends the motion of the constellations, we are unable to see anything but harmony in these statements. Mundilföri and Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr are the same person.

It should be added that the moon-goddess, like her father, could be called Máni without there being any obstacle in the masculine form of the word. The name of the goddess Skaði is also masculine in form, and is inflected as a masculine noun (oblique case, Skaða - Skáldskaparmál 3, 23).