Grimm's TM - Chap. 16
Chapter 16
(Page 5)
Of such stories there are plenty; but nowhere in Romance or German
folk-tales do we meet, as far as I know, the the Norse conception of twining
and fastening the cord, or the Greek one of spinning and cutting the thread
of life. Only one poet of the Mid. Ages, Marner, has it 2, 173b:
zwô schepfer flâhten mir ein seil,
dâ bi diu dritte saz (the third sat by);
diu zerbrachz (broke it): daz was mîn
unheil. (26)
But this seems borrowed from the Roman view of breaking off the
thread (rumpat, p. 406, note). Ottokar makes the schepfeu (creating) impart
all succes in good or evil. The 'banun festan' in Hild. lied is hardly to be
explained by the fastening of a thread of death.
If we compare the Norse mythus with the Greek, each has taken
shape in its own independent way. In Homer it is the personified Aisa
(27) that spins the thread for the newborn:
assa oi Aisa geinomenw epenhse ginw,
ote min teke mhthr. Il. 20, 127; 'what things Aisa span for him at birth
with her thread'. But in Od. 7, 197 other spinners (two) are associated with
her:
assa oi Aisa Kataklwqej te bareiai
geinomenw nhsanto linw, ote min teke mhthr 'what Aisa and the Kataklothes
unkind span'. Hesiod (asp. 258) makes three goddesses stand beside the combatants,
Klwqw, Lacesij, Atropoj, the last small
of stature, but eldest and most exalted of all. But in Theog. 218 he names them
as
Klwqw te Lacesin te kai Atropon,
aite brotoisin geinomenoisi didousin ecein argaqon te kakon te
'who give to mortals at birth to have both
good and ill;' and in almost the same words at 905. The most detailed description
is given by Plato (De republ. 617 Steph. 508 Bekk.): The three moirai are daughters
of Anagkh (necessity), on whose knees the
spindle (atraktoj) turns; they sit clothed
in white and garlanded, singing the destiny, Lachesis ta
gegonota, Klotho ta onta, Atropos
ta mellonta: just the same relation to past,
present and future as the norns have, though the Greek proper names do not themselves
express it. Klwqw (formed like Auxw,
Qallw, Lhtw, Mormw, Gorgw), spins (from klwdw
spin, twine), Lachesis allots (from lacein),
Atropoj, the unturnable, cuts the thread.
It must not be overlooked, that Hesoid sets up the last, Atropos, as the mightiest,
while with us Wurt the eldest produces the most powerful impression. Latin writers
distribute the offices of the parcae somewhat differently, as Apuleius (De mundo
p. 280): Clotho praesentis temporis habet curam, quia quod torquetur in digits,
momenti praesentis indicat spatia; Atropos praeteriti fatum est, quia quod in
fuso perfectum est, praeteriti temporis habet speciem; Lachesis futuri, quod
etiam illis quae futura sunt finem suum deus dederit (see Suppl.). Isidore's
opinion was quoted on p. 405. (28) The Nornagestssaga
bears a striking resemblance to that of Meleager, at whose birth three moirai
tell his future: Atropos destines him to live only till the billet then burning
on the hearth be burnt out; his mother Althaea plucks it out of the fire. (29)
Our modern tales here exchange the norns or fates for death, Kinderm. no. 44.
Another tale, that of the three spinners (no. 14), depicts them as ugly old
women, who come to help, but no longer to predict; they desire to be bidden
to the marriage and to be called cousins. Elsewhere three old women foretold,
but do not spin. (30) A folk-tale (Deutsche sagen no. 9) introduces
two maidens spinning in a cave of the mountain, and under their table is the
Evil one (I suppose the third norn) chained up; again we are told of the roof-beam
on which a spinning wife sits at midnight. (31) We must not
forget the AS. term which describes a norn as weaving, 'Wyrd gewâf' (p.
406); and when it is said in Beow. 1386: 'ac him Dryhten forgeaf wîgspêda
gewiofu' (ei Dominus largitus est successuum bellicorum texturas), this is quite
heathen phraseology, only putting God in the place of Wyrd. Gottfried (Trist.
4698), in describing Blicker of Steinach's purity of mind, expresses himself
thus:
iche wæne, daz in feinen
ze wunder haben gespunnen
und haben in in ir brunnen
geliutert und gereinet;
'I ween that fays spun him as a wonder, and cleansed him in their
fountain'.
Saxo Gram. p. 102 uses the Latin words parca, nympha, but unmistakably
he is describing norns: 'Mos erat antiquis, super futuris liberorum eventibus
parcarum oracula consultare. Quo ritu Fridlevus Olavi filii fortunam exploraturus,
nuncupatis solenniter votis, deorum aedes precabundus accedit, ubi introspecto
sacello (32) ternas sedes totidem nymphis
occupari cognoscit. Quarum prima indulgentioris animi liberalem puero formam,
uberemque humani favoris copiam erogabat. Eidem secunda beneficii loco liberalitatis
excellantiam condonavit. Tertia vero, protervioris ingenii invidentiorisque
studii femina, sororum indulgentiorem aspernata consensum, ideoque earum donis
officere cupiens, futuris pueri moribus parsimoniae crimen affixit.' Here they
are called sisters, which I have found nowhere else in ON. authorities; and
the third nymph is again the illnatured one, who lessens the boons of the first
two. The only difference is, that the norns do not come to the infant, but the
father seeks out their dwelling, their temple (see Suppl.). (33)
The weaving of the norns and the spindle of the fays give us
to recognise domestic motherly divinities; and we have already remarked, that
their appearing suddenly, their haunting of wells and springs accord with the
notions of antiquity about frau Holda, Berhta and the like goddessses, who devote
themselves to spinning, and bestow boons on babes and children.
(34) Among Celts especially, the fatae seem apt to run into
that sense of matres and matronae, (35) which among the Teutons
we find attaching more to divine than to semi-divine beings. In this respect
the fays have something higher in them than our idises and norns, who in lieu
of it stand out more warlike.
4. WALACHURIUN (VALKYRJOR).
Yet, as the fatae are closely bound up with fatum---the pronouncing
of destiny, vaticination---the kinship of the fays to the norns asserts itself
all the same. Now there was no sort of destiny that stirred the spirit of antiquity
more strongly than the issue of battles and wars: it is significant, that the
same urlac, urlouc expresses both fatum and bellum also (Graff 2, 96. Gramm.
2, 790), and the idisî forward or hinder the fight. This their office
we have to look into more narrowly.
From Caesar (De B. Gall. 1, 50) we already learn the practice
of the Germani, 'ut matresfamilias eorum sortibus et vaticinationibus declararent,
utrum proelium committi ex usu esset, necne'. Mistresses of families practised
augury, perhaps women selected for the purpose, of superior and godlike repute
like Veleda.
Let us bear in mind, which gods chiefly concerned themselves
with the event of a battle: Oðinn and Freyja draw to themselves all those
who fall in fight, and Oðinn admits them to his heavenly abode (pp. 133,
305). This hope, of becoming after death members of the divine community, pervades
the religion of the heathen. Now the ON. valr [[the slain]], AS. wl, OHG. wal,
denotes the carnage of the battle-field, the sum of the slain: to take possession
of this val, to gather it in, was denominated kiosa, kiesen, to choose; this
verb seems a general technical term for the acceptance of any sacrifice made
to a higher being. (36) But Oðinn, who
has the siges kür (choosing of victory, p. 133, note), is served in Valhöll
by maidens, and then he sends out into every beattle, to choose the slain, Sn.
39; 'kiosa er liðnir ero,' Sæm. 164b; vildi þik kiosa, Sæm.
254ª.
Hence such a maiden, half divine, is called valkyrja; and it
is another most welcome coincidence, that the AS. language has retained the
very same term wlcyrie (wælcyrge, wælcyrre) to English such Latin
words as bellona, erinnys, Alecto, Tisiphone, and employs it even for parca
and venefica. The Cott. MS. Vitell. A. 15 has a gloss 'wælcyrigean eágan,
gorgoneus': this is translating the Greek idea into an AS. one; did the eyes
of the wælcyrigean instil horror like the Gorgons' heads? I am quite safe
in assuming an OHG. walachuriâ (walachurrâ); valakusjô would
be the Gothic form. At the end of the Langobardian genealogy we find a man's
name Walcausus. (37)
ENDNOTES:
26. H. Schreiber, Feen in Europa pp. 11. 12. 16. 17. Michelet
2, 17. (back)
27. I think aisa is the OHG.
êra, our ehre, for which we should expect a Gothic áiza, áisa
(as áistan is aestimare): êra = honor, decus, dignitas, what is fair
and fitting, what is any one's due; kat aisan,
ex dignitate, to each his meed. If this etymology holds, we understand why frau
Ere was personified (see Suppl.). (back)
28. The Hymn to Mercury 550-561 names individually some other
moirai, still three in number, winged maidens
dwelling on Parnassus, their heads besprinkled with white meal, who prophesy when
they have eaten fresh divine food (hdeian edwdhn)
of honey. Otherwise they are called qriai.
(back)
29. Apollodorus i. 8, 2. (back)
30. Altd. wh. 1, 107-8-9-10. Norske eventyr no. 13. Rob. Chambers
p. 54-5. Müllenhoff's Schleswigh. s. p. 410. Pentamer. 4, 4. (back)
31. Jul. Schmidt, Reichenfels p. 140. (back)
32. They had a temple then, in which their oracle was consulted.
(back)
33. The ettish Laima, at the birth of a child, lays the sheet
under it, and determines its fortune. And on other occasions in life they say,
'taip Laima leme,' so Fate ordained it; no doubt Laima is closely connected with
lemti (ordinare, disponere). She runs barefooted over the hills (see ch. XVII,
Watersprites). There is also mentioned a Dehkla (nursing-mother, from deht to
suckle). A trinity of parcae, and their spinning a thread, are unknown to the
Lettons; conf. Stender's Gramm. p. 264. Rhesas dainos pp. 272. 309. 310.---The
Lithuanians do know a Werpeya (spinner). The Ausland for 1839, no. 278 has a pretty
Lithuanian legend: The dieves valditoyes were seven goddesses, the first one spun
the lives of men out of a distaff given her by the highest god, the second set
up the warp, the third wove in the woof, the fourth told tales to tempt the workers
to leave off, for a cessation of labour spoilt the web, the fifth exhorted them
to industry, and added length to the life, the sixth cut the threads, the seventh
washed the garment and gave it to the most high god, and it became the man's winding-sheet.
Of the seven, only three spin or weave. (back)
34. Not a few times have Holda and Berhta passed into Mary; and
in the three Marys of a Swiss nursery-rhyme I think I can recognise the heathen
norns or idisî:
rite, rite rösli,
ride, ride a-cock horse,
ze Bade stot e schlössli,
at Baden stands a little castle,
ze Bade stot e güldi hus,
at Baden stands a golden house,
es lüeged drei Mareie drus, There look
three Marys out of it:
die eint spinnt side,
the one spins silk,
die ander schnätzelt chride,
the other cards ..............?
die drit schnit haberstrau.
the third cuts oaten straw.
bhüet mer Gott mis chindli au!
God keep my childie too!
Schnätzeln is, I suppose, to wind? [snast = wick? snood? In the märchen
of the Goose-
maid, schnatzen is apparently to comb]. The seventh line sometimes runs: di
dritte
schneidt den faden (cuts the thread). Conf. Vonbun p. 66. Firmenich 2, 665b.
Mannhardt pp. 388. 392. The nursery-song in the Wunderhorn p. 70-1 has three
spinning
tocken, i.e., nymphs, fays. (back)
35. Lersch in the Bonn Annual 1843, pp. 124-7. (back)
36. Chief passage, Sæm. 141ª. Conf. Gramm. 4, 608,
and AS. wîg curon, Cædm. 193, 9; MHG. sige kiesen, Iw. 7969, sig
erkiesen, Wh. 355, 15. So, den tôt kiesen. (back)
37. Of valr, wal itself we might seek the root in velja, valjan
(eligere), so that it should from the first have contained the notion of choosing,
but being applied to strages, and its sense getting blurred, it had to be helped
out by a second verb of the same meaning. Our Tit. 105, 4 has a striking juxtaposition:
'Sigûn din sigehaft ûf dem wal, da man welt magede kiusche und ir
süeze'. It is only in Dietr. 91b and Rab. 536. 635. 811. 850. 923 that
welrecke occurs; can it have any relationship to walküre? (back)
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