Chapter 14

It is a part of that insouciance and light blood of the gods, that they are merry, and laugh. Hence they are called blîð regin (p. 26), as we find 'froh' in the sense of gracious applied to gods and kings, (13) and the spark of joy is conveyed from gods to men. Fráuja, lord, is next of king to froh glad (p. 210). It is said of the Ases, teitir vâro, Sæm. 2ª; and of Heimdall, dreckr glaðr hinn gôða miöð 41b. And 'in svâso guð' 33ª contains a similar notion. In this light the passages quoted (pp. 17-8) on the blithe and cheerful God gather a new importance: it is the old heathen notion still lurking in poetry. When Zeus in divine repose sits on Olympus and looks down on men, he is moved to mirth (orena teryomai, Il. 20, 23), then laughs the blessed heart of him (egelasse de oi qilon htor, 21, 389); which is exactly the Eddic 'hlô honum hugr î briosti, hlô Hlôrriða hugr î briosti,' laughed the mind in his breast: a fresh confirmation of the essential oneness of Zeus and Thôrr. But it is also said of heroes: 'hlô þâ Atla hugr î briosti,' Sæm. 238b. 'hlô þâ Brynhildr af öllum hug,' with all her heart 220ª. OS. 'hugi ward frômôd,' Hel. 109, 7. As. 'môd âhlôh,' Andr. 454. Later, in the Rudlieb 2, 174. 203. 3, 17 the king in his speech is said subridere; in the Nibel. 423, 2 of Brunhild: 'mit smielinden munde si über ahsel sah,' looked over her shoulder. Often in the song of the Cid: 'sonrisose de la boca,' and 'alegre era'. (14) Qumoj ianqh, Il. 23, 600; conf. qumon iainon, Hymn. in Cer. 435. Half in displeasure Here laughs with her lips, not her brows: egelasse ceilesin, oude metwpon ep oqrusi kuanehsin ianqh, Il. 15, 102; but Zeus feels joy in sending out his lightnings, he is called terpikeraunoj 2, 781. 8, 2. 773. 20, 144. So Artemis (Diana) is ioceaira, rejoicing in arrows, 6, 428. 21, 480. Od. 11, 198. At the limping of Hephæstus, the assembly of gods bursts into asbestoj gelwj, uncontrolled laughter, Il. 1, 599; but a gentle smile (meidan) is peculiar to Zeus, Here and Aphrodite. As Aphrodite's beauty is expressed by filommeidhj, smile-loving (Il. 4, 10. 5, 375), so is Freyja's on the contrary by 'grâtfögr,' fair in weeping (see Suppl.).

We have to consider next the manner in which the gods put themselves in motion and become visible to the eyes of mortals. We find that they have a gait and step like the human, only far mightier and swifter. The usual expressions are bh, bh imen, bh ienai, Il. 1, 44. 2, 14. 14, 188. 24, 347, bebnkei 1, 221, ebh 14, 224, bathn 5, 778, bhthn 14, 281, posi probibaj 13, 18, prosebhseto 2, 48. 14, 292, katebhseto 13, 17, apebhseto 2. 35; and in the Edda gengr, Sæm. 9ª, gêk 100ª, gêngo 70ª 71b, gengêngo 1ª 5ª, or else fôr Oðinn was even called Gángleri, Sæm. 32. Sn. 24, i.e., the walker, traveller; the AS. poets use gewât (evasit, abiit) or sîðôde of God returning to heaven, Andr. 118. 225. 977. El. 94-5. But how in the instance of Poseidon, who goes an immense distance in three steps, Il. 13, 20, or that of the Indian Vishnu, who in three paces traverses earth, air and sky. From such swiftness there follows next the sudden appearance and disappearance of the gods; for which our older speech seems to have used Goth. hvaírban, OHG. huerban, AS. hweorfan (verti, ferri, rotari): 'hwearf him tô heofenum hâlig dryhten' says Cædm. 16, 8; and 'Oðinn hvarf þâ,' vanished, Sæm. 47. Homer employs, to express the same thing, either the verb aixasa, Od. 1, 102. Il. 2, 167. 4, 74. 19, 114. 22, 187; Thetis, the dream, Athene, Here, all appear karpalimwj, Il. 1, 359. 2, 17. 168. 5, 868. 19, 115. Od. 2, 406; Poseidon and Here kraipva, kraipnwj, Il. 13, 18. 14. 292; even Zeus, when he rises from his throne to look on the earth, sth anaixaj 15, 6. So Holda and Berhta suddenly stand at the window (p. 274). Much in the same way I understand the expression used in Sæm. 53ª of Thôrr and Týr: fôro driugom (ibant tractim, raptim, elkhdon), for driugr is from driuga, Goth. driugan trahere, whence also Goth. draúhts, OHG. truht turba, agmen, ON. draugr [[ghost]] larva, phantasma, OHG. gitroc fallacia, because a spectre appears and vanishes quickly in the air. At the same time it means the rush and din that betoken the god's approach, the wôma and ômi above, from which Oðinn took a name (p. 144-5). The rapid movement of descending gods is sometimes likened to a shooting star, or the flight of birds, Il. 4, 75. 15, 93. 237; hence they often take even the form of some bird, as Tharapila the Osilian god flew (p. 77). Athene flies away in the shape of a arph (falcon?), Il. 19, 350, an ornij bird, Od. 1, 320, or a fhnh osprey, 3, 372; as a swallow she perches (ezet anaixasa) on the house's melaqron 22, 239. The exchange of the human form for that of a bird, when the gods are departing and no longer need to conceal their wondrous being, tallies exactly with Oðin's taking his flight as a falcon, after he had in the shape of Gestr conversed and quarrelled with Heiðreckr: vîðbrast î vals lîki, Fornald. sög. 1, 487; but it is also retained in many stories of the devil, who assumes at departure the body of a raven or a fly (exit tanquam corvus, egressus est in muscae similitudine). At other times, and this is the prettier touch of the two, the gods allow the man to whom they have appeared as his equals, suddenly as they are going, to become aware of their divine proportions: heel, calf, neck or shoulder betrays the god. When Poseidon leaves the two Ajaxes, one of them says Il. 13, 71: icnia gar metopisqe podwn hde knhmawn rei egnwn apiontoj arignwtoi de qeoi per. So, when Venus leaves Aeneas, Virg. 1, 402: Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille ubi matrem agnovit, tali fugientem est voce secutus. So, Il. 3, 396, Alexander recognises the qeaj perikallea deirhn, sthqea q imeroenta kai ommata marmaironta. And in ON. legend, Hallbiörn on awaking sees the shoulder of a figure in his dream before it vanishes: þýkist siâ â herðar honum, Fornald. sög. 3, 103; as is likewise said in Olaf the saint's saga cap. 199. ed. Holm., while the Fornm. sög. 5, 38 has it: siâ svip mannsins er â brutt gekk; conf. os humerosque deo similis, Aen. 1, 589. This also lingers in our devil-stories: at the Evil one's departure his cloven hoof suddenly becomes visible, the icnia of the ancient god.

As the incessus of Venus declared the goddess, the motion (iqma) of Here and Athene is likened to that of timorous doves, Il. 5, 778. But the gliding of the gods over such immense distances must have seemed from the first to last like flying, especially as their departure was expressly prepared for by the assumption of a bird's form. It is therefore easy to comprehend why two several deities, Hermes and Athene, are provided with peculiar sandals (pedila), whose motive power conveys them over sea and land with the speed of wind, Il. 24, 341. Od. 1, 97. 5, 45; we are expressly told that Hermes flew with them (peteto, Il. 24, 345. Od. 5, 49); plastic art represents them as winged shoes, and at a later time adds a pair of wings to the head of Hermes (15) These winged sandals then have a perfect right to be placed side by side with the feathershift (fiaðrhamr) which Freyja possessed, and which at Thôr's request she lent to Loki for his flight to Iötunheim, Sæm. 70ªb; but as Freyja is more than once confounded with Frigg (p. 302), other legends tell us that Loki flew off in the 'valsham Friggjar,' Sn. 113. I shall come back to these falcon or swan coats in another connexion, but their resemblance to the Greek pedila is unmistakable; as Loki is here sent as a messenger from the gods to the giants, he is so far one with Hermes, and Freyja's feather-shift suggests that sandals of Athene. Sn. 132-7: 'Loki âtti skûa, er hann rann â lopt ok lög,' had shoes in which he ran through air and fire. It was an easy matter, in a myth, for the investiture with winged hamr or sandals to glide insensibly into an actual assumption of a bird's form: Geirröðr catches the flying Loki as a veritable bird, Sn. 113, and when Athene starts to fly, she is a swallow (see Suppl.).




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