Part 3

But in one respect Ari Fróði or his authority has paid attention to the genuine mythic tradition, and that is by making the Vana-gods the kinsmen of the descendants of Yngvi. This is correct in the sense that Scef-Yngvi, the son of a deity transformed into a man, was in the myth a Vana-god. Accordingly every member of the Yngling race and every descendant of Scef may be styled a son of Freyr (Freys áttungr), epithets applied by Thjodulf in Ynglingatal in regard to the Uppsala kings. They are gifts from the Vana-gods - the implements which point to the opulent Njord, and the grain sheaf which is Frey's symbol - which Scef-Yngvi brings with him to the ancient people of Scandia, and his rule is peaceful and rich in blessings.

Scef-Yngvi comes across the ocean. Vanaheim was thought to be situated on the other side of it, in the same direction as Ægir's palace in the great western ocean and in the outermost domain of Jörmungrund (see 93). This is indicated in Lokasenna 34, where Loki in Ægir's hall says to the Van Njord: "You were sent from here to the East as a hostage to the gods" (Þú vart austr héðan gísl um sendr at goðum). Thus Njord's castle Nóatún is situated in the West, on a strand outside of which the swans sing (Gylfaginning 23). In the faded memory of Scef, preserved in the saga of the Lower Rhine and of the Netherlands, there comes to a poverty-stricken people a boat in which there lies a sleeping youth. The boat is, like Scef's, without sails or oars, but is drawn over the billows by a swan. From Gylfaginning 16 we learn that there are myths telling of the origin of the swans. They are all descended from that pair of swans which swim in the sacred waters of Urd's fountain. Thus the descendants of these swans that sing outside of the Vana-palace Nóatún and their arrival to the shores of Midgard seem to have some connection with the coming of the Van Scef and of culture.

The Vans most prominent in the myths are Njord, Freyr, and Heimdal. Though an Asa-god by adoption, Heimdal is like Njord and Freyr a Vana-god by birth and birthplace, and is accordingly called both áss and vanr (Þrymskviða 15). Meanwhile these three divinities, definitely named Vans, are only a few out of many. The Vans have constituted a numerous clan, strong enough to wage a victorious war against the Asas (Völuspá). Who among them was Scef-Yngvi? The question can be answered as follows:

(1) Of Heimdal, and of him alone among the gods, it is related that he lived for a time among men as a man, and that he performed that which is attributed to Scef - that is, organised and elevated human society and became the progenitor of sacred families in Midgard.

(2) Rígsþula relates that the god Heimdal, having assumed the name Rig, begot with an earthly woman the son Jarl-Rig, who in turn became the father of Konr-Rig. Konr-Rig is, as the very name indicates and as Vigfússon already has pointed out, the first who bore the kingly name. In Rígsþula the Jarl begets the king, as in Ynglingasaga the judge (Dómarr) begets the first king. Rig is, according to Ynglingasaga 17, grandfather to Dan, who is a Skjoldung. Heimdal-Rig is thus the father of the progenitor of the Skjoldungs, and it is the story of the divine origin of the Skjoldungs Rígsþula gives us when it sings of Heimdal as Jarl's father and the first king's grandfather. But the progenitor of the Skjoldungs is, according to both Anglo-Saxon and the northern sources above quoted, Scef. Thus Heimdal and Scef are identical.

These proofs are sufficient. More can be presented, and the identity will be established by the whole investigation.

As a tender boy, Heimdal was sent by the Vans to the southern shores of Scandinavia with the gifts of culture. Hyndla's Lay tells how these friendly powers prepared the child for its important mission, after it was born in the outermost borders of the earth (við jarðar þröm), in a wonderful manner, by nine sisters (Hyndluljóð 35 = Völuspá in Skamma 7; Heimdallar Galdr in Gylfaginning 27; compare No. 82, where the ancient Aryan root of the myth concerning Heimdal's nine mothers is pointed out).

For its mission the child had to be equipped with strength, endurance, and wisdom. It was given to drink jarðar magn, svalkaldr sær and Sónar dreyri (Völuspá in Skamma 10). It is necessary to compare these expressions with Urðar magn, svalkaldr sær and Sónar dreyri in Guðrúnarkviða in forna 21, a song written in Christian times, where this reminiscence of a triple heathen-mythic drink reappears as a potion of forgetfulness allaying sorrow. The expression Sónar dreyri shows that the child had tasted liquids from the subterranean fountains which water Yggdrasil and sustain the spiritual and physical life of the universe (cp. Nos. 63 and 93). Són contains the mead of inspiration and wisdom. In Skáldskaparmál, which quotes a satire of late origin, this name is given to a jar in which Suttung preserves this valuable liquor, but to the heathen skalds Són is the name of Mímir's fountain, which contains the highest spiritual gifts, and around whose rush-bordered edge the reeds of poetry grow (Eilífr Guðrúnarson, Skáldskaparmál). The child Heimdal has, therefore, drunk from Mímir's fountain. Jarðar magn (the earth's strength) is in reality the same as Urðar magn, the strength of the water in Urd's fountain, which keeps the world-tree ever green and sustains the physical life of creation (Völuspá). The third subterranean fountain is Hvergelmir, with hardening liquids. From Hvergelmir comes the river Svöl, and the venom-cold Elivágar (Grímnismál, Gylfaginning). Svalkaldr sær, cool sea, is an appropriate designation of this fountain.

When the child has been strengthened in this manner for its great mission, it is laid sleeping in the decorated ship, gets the grain-sheaf for its pillow, and numerous treasures are placed around it. It is certain that there were not only weapons and ornaments, but also workmen's tools among the treasures. It should be borne in mind that the gods made on the Iða-plains not only ornaments, but also tools (tangir skópu ok tól görðu). Evidence is presented in No. 82 that Scef-Heimdal brought the fire-auger to primeval man who until that time had lived without the blessings produced by the sacred fire.

The boy grows up among the inhabitants on the Scandian coast, and, when he has developed into manhood, human culture has germinated under his influence and the beginnings of classes in society with distinct callings appear. In Rígsþula, we find him journeying along "green paths, from house to house, in that land which his presence has blessed". Here he is called Rígr - it is true of him as of nearly all mythological persons, that he has several names - but the introduction to the poem informs us that the person so called is the god Heimdal (einhverr af ásum sá er Heimdallr hét). The country is here also described as situated near the sea. Heimdal journeys fram með sjávarströndu. Culture is in complete operation. The people are settled, they spin and weave, perform handiwork, and are smiths, they plough and bake, and Heimdal has instructed them in runes. Different homes show different customs and various degrees of wealth, but happiness prevails everywhere. Heimdal visits Ái's and Edda's unpretentious home, is hospitably received, and remains three days. Nine months thereafter the son Þræll (Thrall) is born to this family. Heimdal then visits Afi's and Amma's well-kept and cleanly house, and nine months thereafter the son Karl (Churl) is born in this household. Thence Rig betakes himself to Faðir's and Móðir's elegant home. There is born, nine months later, the son Jarl. Thus the three Teutonic classes - the thralls, the freemen, and the nobility - have received their divine sanction from Heimdal-Rig, and all three have been honoured with divine birth.

In the account of Rig's visit to the three different homes lies the mythic idea of a common fatherhood, an idea which must not be left out of sight when human heroes are described as sons of gods in the mythological and heroic sagas. They are sons of the gods and, at the same time, from a genealogical standpoint, men. Their pedigree, starting with Ask and Embla, is not interrupted by the intervention of the visiting god, nor is there developed by this intervention a half-divine, half-human middle class or bastard clan. The Teutonic patriarch Mannus is, according to Tacitus, the son of a god and the grandson of the goddess Earth. Nevertheless he is, as his name indicates, in the full physical sense of the word, a man, and besides his divine father he has had a human father. They are the descendants of Ask and Embla, men of all classes and conditions, whom Völuspá's skald gathered around the seeress when she was to present to them a view of the world's development and commanded silence with the formula: "Give ear, all ye divine races, great and small, sons of Heimdal". The idea of a common fatherhood we find again in the question of Faðir's grandson, as we shall show below. Through him the families of chiefs get the right of precedence before both the other classes. Thor becomes their progenitor. While all classes trace their descent from Heimdal, the nobility trace theirs also from Thor, and through him from Odin.

Heimdal-Rig's and Faðir's son, begotten with Móðir, inherits in Rígsþula the name of the divine co-father, and is called Rígr Jarl. Jarl's son, Konr, gets the same name after he has given proof of his knowledge in the runes introduced among the children of men by Heimdal, and has even shown himself superior to his father in this respect. This view that the younger generation surpasses the older points to the idea of a progress in culture among men, during a time when they live in peace and happiness protected by Heimdal's fostering care and sceptre, but must not be construed into the theory of a continued progress based on the law and nature of things, a theory alike strange to the Teutons and to the other peoples of antiquity. Heimdal-Rig's reign must be regarded as the happy ancient age, of which nearly all mythologies have dreamed. Already in the next age following, that is, that of the second patriarch, we read of men of violence who visit the peaceful, and under the third patriarch begins the "knife-age, and axe-age with cloven shields," which continues through history and receives its most terrible development before Ragnarok.

The more common mythical names of the persons appearing in Rígsþula are not mentioned in the song, not even Heimdal's. In strophe 48, the last of the fragment, we find for the first time words which have the character of names - Danr and Danpr. A crow sings from the tree to Jarl's son, the grandson of Heimdal, Konr, saying that peaceful amusement (kyrra fugla) does not become him longer, but that he should rather mount his steed and fight against men; and the crow seeks to awaken his ambition or jealousy by saying that "Dan and Danp, skilled in navigating ships and wielding swords, have more precious halls and a better freehold than you". The circumstance that these names are mentioned makes it possible, as shall be shown below, to establish in a more satisfactory manner the connection between Rígsþula and other accounts which are found in fragments concerning the Teutonic patriarch period.

The oldest history of man did not among the Teutons begin with a paradisian condition. Some time has elapsed between the creation of Ask and Embla, and Heimdal's coming among men. As culture begins with Heimdal, a condition of barbarism must have preceded his arrival. At all events the first generations after Ask and Embla have been looked upon as lacking fire; consequently they have been without the art of the smith, without metal implements, and without knowledge of agriculture. Hence it is that the Vana-child comes across the western sea with fire, with implements, and with the sheaf of grain. But the barbarous condition may have been attended with innocence and goodness of heart. The manner in which the strange child was received by the inhabitants of Scandia's coast, and the tenderness with which it was cared for (diligenti animo, says Ethelwerd) seem to indicate this.

When Scef-Heimdal had performed his mission, and when the beautiful boat in which he came had disappeared beyond the western horizon, then the second mythic patriarch-age begins.