Chapter 7

von ir scheitel ûf ir zêhen (from her crown to her toes)

sô ist niht an minneclîchen wîden wan (save, but) des Wunsches blic. MsH. 3, 493.

des Wunsches blüete sint entsprungen in mîne herzen. Fragm. 45.

si trage des Wunsches bilde. Ms. 1, 191.

des Wunsches krône tragen. Docen misc. 2, 186.

sie hât des Wunsches gewalt. Amgb. 31.

er was sô gar des Wunsches kint,

daz alle man gein (against, before) sîner schæne wâren blint,

und doch menlich gestalt bî clârem velle (complexion);

der Wunsch im niht gebrechen liez (let nought be lacking)

dâ von man's Wunsches kint den stolzen hiez (should call the stately one). Lohengr. ed. Rückert str. 625.

The following is outside the bounds of MHG.:

an yr yst Wensches vlyt geleit. Haupts seitschr. 3, 221. Mid. Dutch poems have no personifcation Wensch; nor is there a Wunsch in the Nibelungen or Gudrun; but in Wolfdietrich 970: des Wunsches ein amîe! There must be many more instances; but the earliest one I know of is found in the Entekrist from the 12th century (Hoffm. fundgr. 2, 107):

mit Wunschis gewalte With Wish's might

segniti sie der alte. The old man blessed her.

We see Wish provided with hands, power, looks, diligence, art, blossom, fruit; he creates, shapes, produces master-pieces, thinks, bows, swears, curses, is glad and angry, adopts as child, handmaid, friend: all such pretty-well stock phrases would scarcely have sprung up and lived in a poetry, in a language, if they did not unconsciously relate to a higher being, of whom earlier times had a livelier image; on such a basis indeed nearly all the personifcations made use of by MHG. poets seem to me to rest. In the majority of our examples we might fairly put the name of God in the place of Wish, or that of Wish in the phrases quoted on pp. 17-8, which describe the joyous or the angry God: freudenvoll hât sie Got gegozzen, MS. 1, 226; der Wunsch maz ir bilde, as mezzen is said of God, p. 23; and gebieten, to command, is just as technically applied to the one as to the other, p. 24. The 'gramr er yðr Oðinn,' p. 137, might be rendered in MHG 'der Wunsch zürnet iu, fluochet iu,' meaning, the world is sick of you. At times the poet seems to be in doubt, whether to say God or Wish: in the first passage from Gregor, Wish is subordinated, as a being of the second rank, so to speak, as a servant or messenger, to the superior god; the latter has to give him leave to assume his creative function, which in other cases he does of his own might. Again, when body, figure, hair are said to be 'like Wish,' it exactly reminds us of Homer's komai Caritessin omoiai, Il. 17, 51; and Caritej, the Gratiae, creatresses of grace and beauty, play precisely the part of our Wish, even down to the circumstance, that in addition to the personal meaning, there is an abstract Carij, gratia, as there is a wish. (13) Püterich of Reicherzhausen (Haupts zeitschr. 6, 48) speaks of 'die wuntsches füesse' of a princess; the older phrase would have been 'ir füeze wâren dem Wunsche gelîch'. It is a genuine bit of German heathenism to make this creative faculty reside in a god, and not, after the Greek fashion, in a female personage. And there are other features too, that point back to our native heathen eld. Wish's aue and heilwâc can be matched by Phol's ouwa and brunno, or the meads and holywells of other gods; Wish's crown by that worn by gods and kings. And, most remarkable of all, Wish rejoices in his creature as in a child; here Woden's self comes upon the scene as patriarch or paterfamilias, before whom created men make their appearance like children, friends, domestics; and 'wunschkint' is also used in the sense of an adopted, i.e. wished for, child. (14) Herbort 13330 makes Hecuba exclaim: ich hân einen sun verlorn, er gezæme gote ze kinde (would suit God as a child); which does not mean in a christian sense, 'God has doubtless been pleased to take him to Himself,' but in a heathen sense, 'he was so lovely, he might be called Wish's child'. For the Norse Oðinn too has these marvellous children and wish-maidens in his train (see Suppl.) (15)

To the ON. Oski [[name of Othinn, from ósk - "wish"]] ought by rights to correspond to OHG. Wunsco, Wunscjo, (weak decl.), which I am not able to produce even as a man's name (see Suppl.). (16) A MHG. Wunsche cannot be proved from Troj. 3154. 7569. 19620. 19726 (Straszb. MS.), both the metre and the strong gen. in -es forbidding. But the whole idea may in the earliest times have taken far stronger root in South Germany than in Scandinavia, since the Edda tells next to nothing of Oski, while our poetry as late as the 15th century has so much to say of Wunsch. That it was not foreign to the North either, is plainly proved by the Oskmeyjar = Wünschelfrauen, wish-woman; by the Oskasteinn, a philosopher's stone connected with our Wünschelrute, wishing-rod, and Mercury's staff; by Oskabyrr, MHG. Wunschwint, fair wind; by Oskabiörn, wish-bear, a sea-monster; all of which will be discussed more fully by and by. A fem. proper name Osk occurs in a few places; what if the unaccountable skopnir, Sæm. 188, were really to be explained as Osk-opnir? Opnir, Ofnir, we know, are epithets of Oðinn. Both word and meaning seem to grow in relevancy to our mythology, it is a stumbling-block indeed, that the AS. remains furnish no contribution, even the simple wûsc (optio, votum) seeming to be rare, and only wýscan (optare) in common use; yet among the mythic heroes of Deira we meet with a Wûscfreá, lord of Wish as it were; and to the Anglo-Saxons too this being may have merely become extinct, though previously well known (see Suppl.).  



ENDNOTES:

13. In many places it is doubtful, whether the poet means wish or Wish. In Wolfram and Gottfried, who abstain from distinct personfication, I always prefer the abstract interpretation, while Hartmann admits of both by turns. When we read in Parz. 102, 30; si was gar ob dem wunsches zil (over wish's goal, beyond all that one could wish), the phrase borders close upon the above quoted, 'si ist des Wunsches hôstez zil (the highest that Wish ever created)'; and it is but a step from 'mînes wunsches paradis,' MS. 2, 126, to 'des Wunsches paradis' or 'ouwe'. So, 'dâ ist wunsch, und niender breste (here is one's wish, and nothing wanting),' MS. 1, 88 = 'der Wunsch liez im niht gebrechen,' W. left him nothing lacking (see Suppl.).  (back)

14. The Germ. an-wünschen verbally translates the Lat. ad-opto.---Trans.  (back)

15. That Wish was personified, and very boldly, by the christian poets, is abundantly proved. That he was ever believed in as a person, even in heathen times, is, to my thinking, far from clear. I believe some German scholars regard the notion as little better than a mare's nest.----Trans.  (back)

16. The name does occur later: Johannes dictus de (=der) Wunsch, Ch. ann. 1324 (Neue mitth. des thür. vereins I. 4, 65). In the Oberhess. wochenblatt, Marburg 1830, p. 420, I read of a Joh. Wunsch who is probably alive at this moment.  (back)