Chapter 15

I had thought at one time that Hercules might stand for Sahsnôt, Seaxneát, whom the formula of renunciation exalts by the side of Thunar and Wôdan; I thought so on the strength of 'Hercules Saxanus,' whose surname might be explained by saxum = sahs. But the inscriptions in which we meet with this Hercules Saxanus extend beyond the bounds of Germany, and belong rather to the Roman religion. Our Sahsnôt has with more justice been assigned to Zio (p. 203), with whom Hercules cannot be connected. I now think the claims of Irmin are better founded: as Hercules was Jupiter's son, Irmin seems to have been Wôdan's; and he must have been the subject of the battle-songs (ituri in proelia canunt), even of those which Tacitus understood of Arminius (canitur adhuc); though they would have suited Mars too, p. 207 (see Suppl.).

It is a harder matter to form an opinion about the 'Ulysses': Ceterum et Ulixem quidam opinantur longo illo et fabuloso errore in hunc oceanum delatum adisse Germaniae terras, Asciburgiumque, quod in ripa Rheni situm hodieque incolitur, ab illo constitutum nominatumque; aram quin etiam Ulixi consecratam, adjecto Laertae patris nomine, eodem loco olim repertam; Tac. Germ. 3. In Odysseus people have seen Oðinn, in Asciburg Asburg; but if Wôden stood for the god Mercury, it cannot here mean the hero, still less can Askiburg be traced to the âses, a purely Norse form, which in these regions would have been anses. When Tacitus makes Ulixes the founder of Asciburg, nothing is simpler than to suppose him to have been Isco, Escio, Asko (p. 350); and if it was Isco that set the Romans thinking of Ul-ixes, how it helps to establish the sc in Iscaevones! Mannus the father of Isco may have suggested Laertes, inasmuch as laoj people, and laoj stone, are mixed up in the creation of the first man (the origo gentis) out of stone or rock (see ch. XIX); in the same way Asco grew up out of the tree (ash), and oruj and petrh stand together in the mythus not without meaning. As liut from liotau, laoj seems to come from the same root as laoj, laaj. (41)

The interpretatio Romana went more upon analogies of sense than of sound; so, in dealing with Castor and Pollux, I will not take them for the brothers Hadu and Phol = Baldr (see Suppl.). These Gemini, however, are the very hardest to interpret; the passage about them was given on p. 66, and an attempt was made to show that alx referred to the place where the godlike twins were worshipped: I confess it does not satisfy me. Our antiquity has plenty of hero brothers to show, but no twins with a name like Alci, if this plural of Alcus is the true form. It occurs to me, that one of Oðin's names is Iâlkr (Sæm. 46b 47b), and jolk in the Vermland dialect means a boy. (42) This comes more home to us than the Samogitic Algir (angelus est summorum deorum, Lasicz, p. 47), towards which the dictionaries offer nothing but alga, reward. Utterly untrustworthy is any comparison with the Slav deities Lel and Polel, themselves as yet unsupported by authority (see Suppl.) (43)

From the above specimens in Tacitus we may conclude that all the Teutonic races had a pretty fully developed Heroolgy; and if our ancient stores of native literature had been still accessible to us, we might have gained a much closer insight into its nature and its connextion as a whole. As it is, we are thrown upon dry genealogies, dating from many centuries after, and touching only certain races, namely the Goths, Langobards, Burgundians, but above all, the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians. We may learn from them the connextion of the later kings with the ancient gods and heroes, but not the living details of their myths. Yet we could be content, if even such pedigrees had also been preserved of the Franks and other nations of continental Germany.

The Anglo-Saxon genealogoies seem the most important, and the Appendix gives them in full [but see above, p. 165]. All the families branch out from Wôden, as most of the Greek do from Zeus; it was a proud feeling to have one's root in the highest of all gods. Prominent among his sons are Saxneát and Bœldœg, who were themselves accounted divine; but several other names can claim a place among the earliest heroes, e.g., Sigegeát and Wôdelgeát (44) (both akin to the Gothic Gâuts), Freáwine, Wuscfreá, Sœfugel, Westerfalcna; and many are fallen dim to us. Câsere, which in other AS. writings is used for cyning, (45) seems to be a mere appellative, and to have acquired the character of a proper name after the analogy of the Roman cæsar (?). All these genealogies give us barely the names of the god's sons and grandsons, never those of their mothers or grandmothers; and the legend, which ought like the Greek ones to give life to the relationship, is the very thing we miss.

Some of the Norse traditions gain in value, by being taken with the genealogies. The Völsûngasaga sets out with Oðin's being the father of Sigi, but all particulars of the relationship are withheld; Rerir the son of Sigi is in the immediate keeping of the highest gods, and so on. Another time, on the contrary, we are informed, Sn. 84-86, how Oðinn under the name of Bölverkr (OHG. Palowurcho?) became servant to the giant Baugi, in order to get at the divine drink, which the giant's brother Suttûngr kept, guarded by his daughter Gunnlöð; between her and the god took place sundry passages of love, dimly hinted at by Sæmund also 12b 23ªb 24ª, but we are nowhere told what heroes were begotten in the three nights that Oðinn passed with the giant's daughter. Gunnlöð belongs to the race of giants, not of men, which is also the case with Gerðr whom Freyr wooed, and perhaps with others, who are not reckoned among the âsynjor. The Greeks also held that from the union of gods with titans' daughters might spring a hero, or even a god (like Týr, p. 208).--Only Saxo, p. 66, and no other authority, tells us of a Norwegian king and hero 'Frogerus, ut quidam ferunt, Othino patre natus,' to whom the gods gave to be invicinble in fight, unless his adversary could grasp the dust from under his feet, (46) which the Danish king Frotho by fraud contrived to do. Can this Froger be the AS. Freoðegâr, Freðegâr in the Wessex genealogy, who had Brond for father, Bældæg for grandfather, Wôden for great- grandfather? The ON. table of lineage seems to mix up Frioðegar with Froði, his adversary. (47) According to the Formâli of the Edda, p. 15, and the Yngl. saga c. 9, Norway traced her eldest line of kings to Sæmîngr, the son of Oðinn by Skaði, previously the wife of Niörðr; some write Semîngr, which means pacificator, and would lead to Frîðgeir again. Skaði was daughter to the iötunn Thiassi, and the Sigurðardrâpa (-killing) calls Sigurðr Laðaiarl 'afsprîngr Thiassa,' (Th. progenies).---The Herrauðssaga cap. 1 makes Hrîngr spring from Gauti, and him from Oðinn: this Gautr or Gauti (conf. Ing and Ingo, Irmin and Irmino), Goth. Gáuts, OHG. Kôz, AS. Geát, whether surname, son or ancestor of Oðinn, cannot belie his divinity (conf. p. 367); and his son Godwulf too, confounded by some with Folcwalda (p. 165, last table), looks mythical. It is from Gáuts that the Gáutôs (Kûzâ, Gautoi) professed to be descended, these being other than the Guþans (Tac. Gothones, Gotqoi), but related to them nevertheless, for the Gothic genealogy starts with the same Gáuts at the head of it.---Again, Sigrlami is called Oðin's son, Fornald. sög. 1, 413. But who can 'Bous (gen. Boi), Othini ex Rinda filius' be in Saxo Gram. 46? Possibly Biar, Biaf, Beav = Beowulf, to whom we are coming (see Suppl.). (48)




ENDNOTES:

41. "Ulixes = Loki, Sn. 78. For Laertes, whose name Pott 1, 222 explains as protector of the people, conf. Ptolemy's Lakibourgtion." Extr. from Suppl., vol. iii. Back

42. Almqvist, Svensk språklära, Stockh. 1840, p. 385ª. Back

43. In Lith. lele is pupa, akies lele pupilla, leilas butterfly. Back

44. OHG. Wuotilgôz (Zeitschr. f. d. alt. 1, 577), conf. wüeteln above, p. 132. and Wodel- beer, p. 156 (see Suppl.). Back

45. In Boëth. 38, 1 Agamemnon is styled câsere, and Ulysses cyning [in the Pref., Rædgot, Ealleric, Theodric are cyningas, the emperor always câsere]; in a doc. in Kemble 2, 304 Eádred is 'cyning and câsere'. Back

46. A token of victory? as the vanquished had to present such dust (RA. 111-2). Back

47. The AS. name Frôdheri stands yet farther away (Beda 2, 9 §113). Back

48. Saxo 122 mentions one hero begotten by Thôrr: Haldanus Biarggrammus apud Sueones magni Thor filius existimatur. And I know of no other but this one. Back