Chapter 15

Ing first dwelt with the East Danes (conf. Beow. 779. 1225. 1650), then he went eastward over the sea, (11) his wain ran after. The wain is a distinctive mark of ancient gods, but also of heroes and kings; its being specially put forward here in connexion with a sea-voyage, appears to indicate some feature of the legend that is unknown to us (see Suppl.). Ing's residence in the east is strikingly in harmony with a pedigree of the Ynglings given in Islendîngabôk (Isl. sög. 1, 19). here at the head of all stands 'Yngvi Tyrkja konungr,' immediately succeeded by divine beings, Niörðr, Freyr, Fiölnir (a byname of Oðinn), Svegdir, &c. In the same way Oðinn was called Tyrkja konungr (Sn. 368) from his residing at Byzantium (p. 163 note). (12) The Ynglînga saga on the other hand begins the line with Niörðr, after whom come Freyr, Fiölnir and the rest; but of Freyr, whom the wain would have suited exactly, it is stated that he had another name Yngvi or Yngvifreyr (p. 211-2), and the whole race of Ynglîngar were named after him. (13) Ingîngar or Ingvîngar would be more exact, as is shown by the OHG. and AS. spelling, and confirmed by a host of very ancient names compounded with Ing or Ingo: Inguiomêrus (Ingimârus, Ingumâr, or with asp. Hincmarus), Inguram, Ingimund, Ingiburc, Inginolt, &c. Even Saxo Gram. writes Ingo, Ingimarus. As for Ynglîngar, standing for Inglîngar, it may be formed from the prolongation Ingil in Ingelwin, Ingelram, Ingelberga and the Norse Ingellus, unless it is a mere confusion of the word with ýnglîngr juvenis, OHG. jungilinc, AS. geongling, from the root ûng, junc, geong, which has no business here at all (?).--The main point is, that the first genealogy puts Ingvi before Niörðr, so that he would be Frey's grandfather, while the other version makes him be born again as it were in Freyr, and even fuses his name with Frey's, of which there lurks a trace likewise in the AS. 'freá Ingwina' (p. 211). This Ingwina appears to be the gen. pl. of Ingwine, OHG. Inguwini, and 'dominus Ingwinorum' need not necessarily refer to the god, any hero might be so called. But with perfect right may an Ingvi, Inguio be the patriarch of a race that bears the name of Ingvîngar = Ynglîngar. And then, what the Norse genealogy is unable to carry farther up than to Ingvi, Tacitus kindly completes for us, by informing us that Inguio is the son of Mannus, and he of Tvisco; and his Ingaevones are one of two things, either the OHG. pl. Inguion (from sing. Inguio), or Ingwini after the AS. Ingwine.

Thus pieced out, the line of gods and heroes would run: Tvisco, Mannus, Ingvio, Nerthus, Fravio (or whatever shape the Gothic Fráuja would have taken in the mouth of a Roman). The earth-born Tvisco's mother repeats herself after three intermediate links in Nerthus the god or hero, as a Norse Ingui stands now before Niörðr, now after; and those Vanir, who have been moved away to the east, and to whom Niörðr and his son Freyr were held mainly to belong (pp. 218-9), would have a claim to count as one and the same race with the Ingaevones, although this association with Mannus and Tvisco appears to vindicate their Teutonic character.

But these bonds draw themselves yet tighter. The AS. lay informed us, that Ing bore that name among the Heardings, had received it from them. This Heardingas must either mean heroes and men generally, as we saw on p. 342, or a particular people. Hartung is still remembered in our Heldenbuch as king of the Reussen (Rûs, Russians), the same probably as 'Hartnît' or 'Hertnît von Reussen'; in the Alphart he is one of the Wölfing heroes. (14) Hartunc and his father Immunc (Rudlieb 17, 8) remain dark to us. The Heardingas appear to be a nation situated east of the Danes and Swedes, among whom Ing is said to have lived for a time; and this his sojourn is helped out both by the Turkish king Yngui and the Russian Hartung. It has been shown that to Hartunc, Hearding, would correspond the ON. form Haddîngr. Now, whereas the Danish line of heroes beginning with Oðinn arrives at Frôði in no more than three generations, Oðinn being followed by Skiöldr, Friðleifr, Frôði; the series given in Saxo Gram. stands thus: Humbl, Dan, Lother, Skiold, Gram, Hading, Frotho. But Hading stands for Hadding, as is clear from the spelling of 'duo Haddingi' in Saxo p. 93, who are the Haddîngjar often mentioned in the Edda; it is said of him, p. 12: 'orientalium robore debellato, Suetiam reversus,' which orientals again are Rutheni; but what is most remarkable is, that Saxo p. 17-8 puts in the mouth of this Danish king and his wife Regnilda a song which in the Edda is sung by Niörðr and Skaði (Sn. 27-8). (15) We may accordingly take Hadding to be identical with Niörðr, i.e., a second birth of that god, which is further confirmed by Friðleifr (= Freálâf, whom we have already identified with the simple Freá, p. 219) appearing in the same line, exactly as Freyr is a son of Niörðr, and Saxo says expressly, p. 16, that Hadding offered a Fröblôt, a sacrifice in honour of Freyr. Whether in Frôði (OHG. Fruoto, MHG. Fruote), the hero of the Danish story, who makes himself into three, and whose rule is praised as peaceful and blissful, we are to look for Freyr over again, is another question.

In the god-hero of Tacitus then there lingers, still recognisable, a Norse god; and the links I have produced must, if I mistake not, set the final seal on the reading 'Nerthus'. If we will not admit the goddess into the ranks of a race which already has a Terra mater standing at its very head, it is at all events no great stretch to suppose that certain nations transferred her name to the god or hero who formed one of the succeeding links in the race.

There are more of these Norse myths which probably have to do with this subject, lights that skim the deep darkness of our olden time, but cannot light it up, and often die away in a dubious flicker. The Formâli of the Edda, p. 15, calls Oðinn father of Yngvi, and puts him at the head of the Ynglîngar: once again we see ourselves entitled to identify Oðinn with Mannus or Tvisco. Nay, with all this interlacing and interchange of members, we could almost bear to see Oðinn made the same as Niörðr, which is done in one manuscript. But the narrative 'frâ Fornioti ok haus ættmönnum' in Fornald. sög. 2, 12 carries us farther: at the top stands Burri, like the king of Tyrkland, followed by Burr, Oðinn, Freyr, Niörðr, Freyr, Fiölnir; here then is a double Freyr, the first one taking Yngvi's place, i.e., the Yngvifreyr we had before; but also a manifold Oðinn, Fiölnir being one of his names (Sæm. 10ª 46b 184ª. Sn. 3). Burri and Burr, names closely related to each other like Folkvaldi and Folkvaldr, and given in another list as Burri and Bors, seem clearly to be the Buri and Börr cited by Sn. 7. 8 as forefathers of the three brothers Oðinn, Vili, Ve (see p. 162). Now, Buri is that first man or human being, who was licked out of the rocks by the cow, hence the êristporo (erst-born), an OHG. Poro, Goth. Baúra; Börr might be OHG. Paru, Goth. Barus or whatever form we choose to adopt, anyhow it comes from baíran, a root evidently well chosen in a genealogical tale, to denote the first-born, first-created men. (16) Yet we may think of Byr too, the wish-wand (see Oskabyrr, p. 144). Must not Buri, Börr, Oðinn be parallel, though under other names, to Tvisco, Mannus, Inguio? Inguio has two brothers at his side, Iscio and Hermino, as Oðinn has Vili and Ve; we should then see the reason why the names Týski and Maðr (17) are absent from the Edda, because Buri and Börr are their substitutes; and several other things would become intelligible. Tvisco is 'terra editus,' and Buri is produced out of stone; when we see Oðinn heading the Ynglîngar as well as Inguio the Ingaevones, we may find in that a confirmation of the hypothesis that Saxons and Cheruscans, preeminently worshippers of Wôdan, formed the flower of the Ingaevones. These gods and demigods may appear to be all running into one another, but always there emerges from among the real supreme divinity, Wuotan.




ENDNOTES:

11. Cædm. 88, 8 says of the raven let out of Noah's ark: gewât ofer wonne wæg sîgan. Back

12. Snorri sends him to Turkland, Saxo only as far as Byzantium.---Trans. Back

13. As the ON. genealogies have Yngvi, Niörðr, Freyr, the Old Swedish tables in Geijer (häfder 118. 121. 475) give Inge, Neorch, Fro; some have Neoroch for Neorch, both being corruptions of Neorth. Now, was it by running Ingvi and Freyr into one, that the combination Ingvifreyr (transposed into AS. freá Ingwina) arose, or was he cut in two to make an additional link? The Skâldskaparmâl in Sn. 211ª calls Yngvifreyr Oðin's son, and from the enumeration of the twelve or thirteen Ases in Sn. 211b it cannot be doubted that Yngvifreyr was regarded as equivalent to the simple Freyr. Back

14. Hernit = Harding in the Swedish tale of Dietrich (Iduna 10, 253-4. 284). Back

15. So Wh. Müller (Haupt's zeitschr. 3, 48-9) has justly pointed out, that Skaði's choice of the muffled bridegroom, whose feet alone were visible (Sn. 82), agrees with Saxo's 'eligendi mariti liberatas curiosiore corporum attrectatione,' but here to find a ring that the flesh has healed over. Skaði and Ragnhild necessarily fall into one. Back

16. So in the Rigsmâl 105ª, Burr is called the first, Barn the second, and Ioð (conf. AS. eáden) the third child of Faðir and Môðir. Back

17. ON. for man: sing. maðr, mannis, manni, mann; pl. menn, manna, mönnun, menn. Back