Chapter 20

Hrœsvelgr (OHG. Hrêosuolah?) means swallower of corpses, flesh-eater, Sansk. kraviyâda, and is used of birds of prey that feed on carrion, but may also be applied to winds and storms which purify the air: they destroy the effluvia from the bodies that lie unburied.

Is that the foundation of the fancy, that when a man hangs himself, a tempest springs up, and the roar of the wind proclaims the suicide? (112) Is it the greedy carrion-fowl that comes on in haste to seize the dead, his lawful prey, who swings unburied on the tree? Or does the air resent the self-murderer's polluting presence in it? A New-year's storm is thought to announce pestilence (Sup. I, 330. 910), spreading an odour of death in anticipation.

Tempest (like fire) the common people picture to themselves as a voracious hungry being (of course a giant, according to the root idea of iötunn, p. 519), and they try to pacify him by pouring out flour in the air. (113) I take this to be an ancient superstition, and light is thrown upon it now by a Norwegian tale in Asbjörnsen no. 7, of the northwind carrying off a poor fellow's meal three times, but compensating him afterwards by costly presents. This northwind behaves exactly as a rough good-natured giant. (see Suppl.).

The raising of the whirlwind was, as we have seen (p. 632), ascribed to divine, semi-divine, and diabolic beings. In Norway they say of whirlwinds and foul weather, 'the giant stirs his pots,' Faye p. 7.

In two weather-spells (Append. Exorcism v.) Mermeut and Fasolt are called upon as evil spirits and authors of storms. Fasolt is the well-known giant of our hero-legend, brother of Ecke, who was himself a god of tides and waves (p. 239). The two brothers have kindred occupations, being rulers of the dread sea and of the weather. What we gather from the second spell about Fasolt seems to me of importance, and another conclusive proof of the identity of Ecke with Oegir: as Hlêr and Kâri are brothers and giants, so are also Ecke and Fasolt; as Hlêr commands the sea and Kâri the winds, so does Ecke rule the waters and Fasolt the storm.. To the Norse oets the wind is 'Forniots sonr' and 'Oegis brôðir.' (114) Now, as Hlêr was called by another nation Oegir, i.e. Uogi, Ecke, so Kâri may have been called Fasolt. Fasolt must be an old word, if only because it is hard to explain; does it come under the OHG. fasa, fasôn (Graff. 3, 705)? In ON., 'fas' [[?]] is superbia, arrogantia; the name seems to express the overbearing nature of a giant. Mermeut, which occurs nowhere else, perhaps means the sea-matters? Schm. 2, 552. 653 has maudern mutern, murmurare.---These demi-gods and giants stand related to Donar the supreme director of clouds and weather, as Æolus or Boreas to Zeus.

And from Zeus it was that the favourable wished-for wind proceeded: Dioj ouroj, Od. 5, 176. Wuotan (the all-pervading, p. 630) makes the wish-wind, ôska-byrr, p. 144. What notion lies at the bottom of Wolfram's making Juno give the 'segels luft,' sail-wind (Parz. 753, 7)? Again in Parz. 750, 7 and 766, 4: 'Juno fuocte (fitted) daz weter,' and 'segelweter.' The fruitful breeze that whispers in the corn was due to Frô and his boar, pp. 213-4. An ON. name of Oðinn was Viðrir, the weatherer: 'at þeir sögðu han veðrum râða,' he governs weathers (Fornm. sög. 10, 171). Such a god was Pogóda to the Slavs, and the Pol. pogoda, Boh. pohoda, still signifies good growing or ripening weather [Russ. gód = time, year; pogóda = weather, good or bad]. Typhon in Egyptian legend meant the south wind, Hes. Theog. 301. 862.

The Lettons believed in a god of winds and storms Okkupeernis, and thought that from his forehead they came down the sky to the earth. (115)

In an ON. saga (Fornald. sög. 3, 122) appears giant Grîmnir, whose father and brother are named Grîmôlfr and Grîmarr, a sort of Polyphemus, who can excite storm or good wind: here again it is Oðinn we must think of (p. 144). Two semi-divine beings, honoured with temples of their own and bloody sacrifices, were the giant's daughters Thorgerðr and Irpa (p. 98). In the Skâldskaparmâl 154 Thorgerðr is called Hölgabrûðr or king Hölgi's daughter, elsewhere hörgabrûðr and hörgatröll (Fornald. sög. 2, 131), spousa divum, immanissima gigas, which reminds us of our wind's-bride. Both the sisters sent foul weather, storm and hail, when implored to do so, Fornm. sög. 11, 134-7. And ON. legend mentions other dames besides, who make foul weather and fog, as Heiði and Hamglöm, Fornald. sög. 2, 72, Ingibiörg, ibid. 3, 442 (see Suppl.). (116)

What was at first imputed to gods, demigods and giants, the sending of wind, storm and hail (vis daemonum concitans procellas, Beda's Hist. eccl. 1, 17), was in later times attributed to human sorcerers.

First we find the Lex Visigoth. vi. 2, 3 provides against the 'malifici et immissores tempestatum, qui quibusdam incantationibus grandinem in vineas messesque mittere perhibentur.' Then Charles the Great in his Capit. of 789 cap. 64 (Pertz 3, 64): 'ut nec cauculatores et incantatores, nec tempestarii vel obligatores non fiant, et ubicunque sunt, emendentur vel damnentur.' Soon after that king's death, about the beginning of Lewis the Pious's reign, bp. Agobard (d. 840) wrote 'Contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis.' From this treatise, following Baluz's edit. of the works of Agobard, I take a few passages.

1, 145: In his regionibus pene omnes homines, nobiles et ignobiles, urbani et rustici, senes et juvenes, putant grandines et tonitrua hominum libitu posse fieri. Dicunt enim, mox ut audierint tonitrua et viderint fulgura: 'aura levatitia est.' Interrogati vero, quid sit aura levatitia ? alii cum verecundia, parum remordente conscientia, alii autem confidenter, ut imperitorum moris esse solet, confirmant incantationibus hominum qui dicuntur tempestarii, esse levatam, et ideo dici levatitiam auram.

1, 146: Plerosque autem vidimus et audivimus tanta dementia obrutos, tanta stultitia alienatos, ut credant et dicant, quandam esse regionem quae dicatur Magonia, ex qua naves veniant in nubibus, in quibus fruges quae grandinibus decidunt et tempestatibus pereunt, vehantur in eandem regionem, ipsis videlicet nautis aëreis dantibus pretia tempestariis, et accipientibus frumenta vel ceteras fruges. Ex his item tam profunda stultitia excoecatis, ut hoc posse fieri credant, vidimus plures in quodam conventu hominum exhibere vinctos quatuor homines, tres viros et unam feminam, quasi qui de ipsis navibus ceciderint: quos scilicet, per aliquot dies in vinculis detentos, tandem collecto conventu hominum exhibuerunt, ut dixi, in nostra praesentia, tanquam lapidandos. Sed tamen vincente veritate post multam ratiocinationem, ipsi qui eos exhibuerant secundum propheticum illud confusi sunt, sicut confunditur fur quando deprehenditur.

1, 153: Nam et hoc quidam dicunt, nosse se tales tempestarios, qui dispersam grandinem et late per regionem decidentem faciant unum in locum fluminis aut silvae infructuosae, aut super unam, ut ajunt, cupam, sub qua ipse lateat, defluere. Frequenter certe audivimus a multis dici quod talia nossent in certis locis facta, sed necdum audivimus, ut aliquis se haec vidisse testaretur.

1, 158: Qui, mox ut audiunt tonitrua vel cum levi flatu venti, dicunt 'levatitia aura est,' et maledicunt dicentes: 'maledicta lingua illa et arefiat et jam praecisa esse debebat, quae hos facit!'

1, 159: Nostris quoque temporibus videmus aliquando, collectis messibus et vindemiis, propter siccitatem agricolas seminare nom posse. Quare non obtinetis apud tempestarios vestros, ut mittant auras levatitias, quibus terra inrigetur, et postea seminare possitis?

1, 161: Isti autem, contra quos sermo est, ostendunt nobis homunculos, a sanctitate, justitia et sapientia alienos, a fide et veritate nudos, odibiles etiam proximis, a quibus dicunt vehementissimos imbres, sonantia aquae tonitrua et levatitias auras posse fieri.

1, 162: In tantum malum istud jam adolevit, ut in plerisque locis sint homines miserrimi, qui dicant, se non equidem nosse immittere tempestates, sed nosse tamen defendere a tempestate habitatores loci. His habent statutum, quantum de frugibus suis donent, et appellant hoc canonicum. Many are backward in tithes and alms, canonicum autem, quem dicunt, suis defensoribus (a quibus se defendi credunt a tempestate) nullo praedicante, nullo admonente vel exhortante, sponte persolvunt, diabolo inliciente. Denique in talibus ex parte magnam spem habent vitae suae, quasi per illos vivant (see Suppl.).

It was natural for driving hail-clouds to be likened to a ship sailing across the sky; we know our gods were provided with cars and ships, and we saw at p. 332 that the very Edda bestows on a cloud the name of vindflot. But when the tempest-men by their spells call the air-ship to them or draw it on, they are servants and assistants rather than originators of the storm. The real lord of the weather takes the corn lodged by the hail into the ship with him, and remunerates the conjurors, who might be called his priests. The Christian people said: 'these conjurors sell the grain to the aëronaut, and he carries it away.' But what mythic country can Magonia mean? It is not known whether Agobard was born in Germany or Gaul, though his name is enough to show his Frankish or Burgundian extraction; just as little can we tell whether he composed the treatise at Lyons, or previously at some other place. The name Magonia itself seems to take us to some region where Latin was spoken, if we may rely on its referring to magus and a magic land.



ENDNOTES:

112. Sup. I, 343. 1013. Kirchhofer's Schweiz. spr. 327. Cl. Brentano's Libussa p. 432. Sartori's Reise in Kärnten 2, 164. Leoprechting 102. [Back]

113. Sup. I, 282. Praetorius's Weltbeschr. 1, 429: At Bamberg, when a violent wind was raging, an old woman snatched up her mealsack, and emptied it out of window into the air, with the words: 'Dear wind, don't be so wild; take that home to your child!' She meant to appease the hunger of the wind, as of a greedy lion or fierce wolf. [Back]

114. 'Forniots sefar' = sea and wind, Sæm. 90b. [Back]

115. Okka, or auka, storm; peere forehead. Stender's Gramm. 266. [Back]

116. Conf. p. 333, 463 hulizhialmr. [Back]