Chapter 15

The renowned race of the Billings or Billungs, whose mythic roots and relations are no longer discoverable, was still flourishing in North Germany in the 10-11th centuries. The first historically certain Billing died in 967, and another, above a hundred years older, is mentioned. (64) The Cod. Exon. 320, 7 says: 'Billing weold Wernum,' he belongs therefore to the stock of Werina, who were near of kin to the Angles. There was a Billinga hæð (heath) near Whalley, and London has to this day a Billingsgate. In OHG. we find a man's name Billunc (Ried nos. 14. 21-3, A.D. 808. 821-2). If we take into account, that a dwarf Billîngr occurs in the Edda, Sæm. 2ª 23ª, a hero Pillunc in Rol. 175, 1, and Billunc and Nîdunc coupled together in the Renner 14126-647, the name acquires a respectable degree of importance (see Suppl.). The derivative Billinc implies a simple bil or bili (lenitas, placiditas), from which directly [and not from our adj. billig, fair] are formed the OHG. names Pilidrût, Pilihilt, Pilikart, Pilihelm; to which add the almost personified Billich (equity) in Trist. 9374. 10062. 17887. 18027, and the ON. goddess Bil, Sn. 39; the ll in Billung could be explained through Biliung. Just as Oðinn in Sæm. 46b is called both Bileygr (mild-eye) and Baleygr (of baneful eye), so in Saxo Gram. 130 a Bilvisus (æquus) stands opposed to Bölvisus (iniquus).

In addition to the heroes ascertained thus far, who form part of the main pedigree of whole nations, and thence derive weight and durability, there is another class of more isolated heroes; I can only put forward a few of them here.

We have still remaining a somewhat rude poem, certainly founded on very ancient material, about a king Orendel or Erentel, whom the appendix to the Heldenbuch pronounces the first of all heroes that were ever born. He suffers shipwreck on a voyage, takes shelter with a master fisherman Eisen, (65) earns the seamless coat of his master, and afterwards wins frau Breide, the fairest of women: king Eigel of Trier was his father's name. The whole tissue of the fable puts one in mind of the Odyssey: the shipwrecked man clings to the plank, digs himself a hole, holds a bough before him; even the seamless coat may be compared to Ino's veil, and the fisher to the swineherd, dame Breide's templars would be Penelope's suitors, and angels are sent often, like Zeus's messengers. Yet many things take a different turn, more in German fashion, and incidents are added, such as the laying of a naked sword between the newly married couple, which the Greek story knows nothing of. The hero's name is found even in OHG. documents: Orendil, Meichelb. 61; Trad. fuld. 2, 24. 2, 109 (Schannat 308); Orendil a Bavarian count (an. 843 in. Eccard's Fr. or. 2, 367); a village Orendelsal, now Orendensall, in Hohenlohe, v. Haupts zeitschr. 7, 558.---But the Edda has another myth, which was alluded to in speaking of the stone in Thôrr's head. Grôa is busy conning her magic spell, when Thôrr, to requite her for the approaching cure, imparts the welcome news, that in coming from Iötunheim in the North he has carried her husband th bold Örvandill in a basket on his back, and he is sure to be home soon; he adds by the way of token, that Örvandil's toe had stuck out of the basket and got frozen, he broke it off and flung it at the sky, and made a star of it, which is called Örvandils-tâ. But Grôa in her joy at the tidings forgot her spell, so the stone in the god's head never got loose, Sn. 110-1. Grôa, the growing, the grass-green, is equivalent to Breide, i.e., Berhta (p. 272) the bright, it is only another part of his history that is related here: Örvandill must have set out on his travels again, and on this second adventure forfeited the toe which Thôrr set in the sky, though what he had to do with the god we are not clearly told. Beyond a doubt, the name of the glittering star-group is referred to, when AS. glosses render 'jubar' by earendel, and a hymn to the virgin Mary in Cod. Exon. 7, 20 presents the following passage:

Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast,

ofer middangeard monnum sended,

and sôðfæsta sunnan leoma

torht ofer tunglas, þu tîda gehwane

of sylfum þe symle inlîhtes!

i.e., O jubar, angelorum splendidissime, super orbem terrarum hominibus misse, radie vere solis, supra stellas lucide, qui omni tempore ex te ipso luces! Mary or Christ is here addressed under the heathen name of the constellation. I am only in doubt as to the right spelling and interpretation of the word; an OHG. ôrentil implies AS. eárendel, and the two demand ON. aurvendill, eyrvendill; but if we start with ON. örvendill, then AS. earendel, OHG. erentil would seem preferable. The latter part of the compound certainly contains entil = wentil. (66) The first part should be either ôra, eáre (auris), or else ON. ör, gen. örvar [[arrow]] (sagitta). Now, as there occurs in a tale in Saxo Gram., p. 48, a Horvendilus filius Gervendili, and in OHG. a name Kêrwentil (Schm. 2, 334) and Gêrentil (Trad. fuld. 2, 106), and as geir (hasta) agrees better with ör than with eyra (auris), the second interpretation may command our assent;(67) a sight of the complete legend would explain the reason of the name. I think Orentil's father deserves attention too: Eigil is another old and obscure name, borne for instance by an abbot of Fulda who died in 822 (Pertz 1, 95. 356. 2, 366. Trad. fuld. 1, 77-8. 122). In the Rhine-Moselle country are the singular Eigelsteine, Weisth. 2, 744 (see Suppl.). (68) In AS. we find the names Aegles burg (Aylesbury), Aegles ford (Aylesford), Aegles þorp; but I shall come back to Eigil presently. Possibly Orentil was the thundergod's companion in expeditions against giants. Can the story of Orentil's wanderings possibly be so old amongst us, that in Orentil and Eigil of Trier we are to look for that Ulysses and Laertes whom Tacitus places on our Rhine (p. 365)? The names shew nothing in common. (69)




ENDNOTES:

64. Wedekind's Hermann duke of Saxony, Lüneb. 1817, p. 60. Conf. the miles Billinc, comes Billingus in docs. of 961-8 in Höfers zeitschr. 2, 239. 344, and the OHG. form Billungus in Zeuss, Trad. wizenb. pp. 274. 287. 305. Back

65. Who is also found apparently in a version of the Lay of king Oswald. Back

66. Whence did Matthesius (in Frisch 2, 439ª) get his "Pan is the heathens' Wendel and head bagpiper"? Can the word refer to the metamorphoses of the flute-playing demigod? In trials of witches, Wendel is a name for the devil, Mones anz. 8, 124. Back

67. And so Uhland (On Thor, p. 47 seq.) expounds it: in Grôa he sees the growth of the crop, in Örvandill the sprouting of the blade. Even the tale in Saxo he brings in. Back

68. The false spelling Eichelstein (acorn-stone) has given rise to spurious legends, Mones anz. 7, 368. Back

69. I have hardly the face to mention, that some make the right shifty Ulysses father to Pan, our Wendel above. Back