Chapter 22

Constellations can be divided into two kinds, according to their origin. One kind requires several stars, to make up the shape of some object, a man, beast, etc.; the stars then serve as ground or skeleton, round which is drawn the full figure as imagination sees it. Thus, three stars in a row form St. Jame's staff, distaff, a belt; seven group themselves into the outline of a bear, others into that of a giant Orion. The other kind is, to my thinking, simpler, bolder, and older: a whole man is seen in a single star, without regard to his particular shape, which would disappear from sheer distance; if the tiny speck drew nearer to us, it might develop itself again. So the same three stars as before are three men mowing; the seven Pleiads are a hen and her chickens; two stars, standing at the same distance on each side of a faintly visible cluster, were to the ancient Greeks two asses feeding at a crib. Here fancy is left comparatively free and unfettered, while those outline-figures call for some effort of abstraction; yet let them also have the benefit of Buttmann's apt remark, (71) that people did not begin with tracing the complete figure in the sky, it was quite enough to have made out a portion of it; the rest remained undefined, or was filled up afterwards according to fancy. On this plan perhaps the Bear was first found in the three stars of the tail, and then the other four supplied the body. Our Wain shows a combination of both methods: the thill arose, like the Bear's tail, by outline, but the four wheels consist each of a single star. One point of agreement is important, that the Greek gods put men among the stars, the same as Thôrr and Oðinn do (pp. 375. 723; see Suppl.).

The appearance of the rainbow in the sky has given rise to a number of mythic notions. Of its rounded arch the Edda makes a heavenly bridge over which the deities walk; hence it is called
Asbrû (Sæm. 44ª), more commonly Bif-röst (OHG. would be piparasta) the quivering tract, for röst, Goth. and OHG. rasta, means a definite distance, like mile or league. It is the best of all bridges (Sæm. 46ª), strongly built out of three colours; yet the day cometh when it shall break down, at the end of the world, when the sons of Muspell shall pass over it, Sn. 14. 72. The tail of the bridge (72) extends to Himinbiörg, Heimdall's dwelling (Sn. 21), and Heimdallr is the appointed keeper of the bridge; he guards it against hrîmthurses and mountain-giants, (73) lest they make their way over the bridge into heaven, Sn. 18. 30. The whole conception is in keeping with the cars in which the gods journey through heaven, and the roads that stretch across it (conf. p. 361). It was Christianity that first introduced the O. Test. notion of the celestial bow being a sign of the covenant which God made with men after the rain of the Deluge: OHG. reganpogo, AS. scûrboga, shower-bow, Cædm. 93, 5. Meanwhile some ancient superstitions linger still. The simple folk imagine, that on the spot where the rainbow springs out of the ground, there is a golden dish, or a treasure lies buried; that gold coins or pennies drop out of the rainbow. When gold-pieces are picked up, they are called regenbogen-schüsselein (-dishes), patellae Iridis, which the sun squanders in the rainbow. In Bavaria they call the rainbow himmelring, sonnenring, and those coins himmelring-schüsseln (Schm. 2, 196. 3, 109: conf. supra p. 359 note). The Romans thought the bow in rising drank water out of the ground: 'bibit arcus, pluet hodie,' Plaut. Curcul. 1, 2; 'purpureus pluvias cur bibit arcus aquas?' Propert. iii. 5, 32. Tibull. i. 4, 44. Virg. Georg. 1, 380. Ov. Met. 1, 271. One must not point with fingers at the rainbow, any more than at stars, Braunschw. anz. 1754, p. 1063. Building on the rainbow means a bootless enterprise (note on Freidank p. 319. 320, and Nib. Lament 1095. Spiegel, 161, 6); and setting on the rainbow (Bit. 2016) apparently exposing to great danger? Is 'behûsen unebene ûf regenbogen' (Tit. Hahn 4061) to be unequally seated? In H. Sachs ii. 287 a man gets pushed off the rainbow. The Finns have a song in which a maiden sits on the rainbow, weaving a golden garment. Might not our heathen ancestors think and say the like of their piparasta? There is a remarkable point of agreement on the part of the Chinese: 'tunc et etiamnum viget superstitio, qua iridem orientalem digito monstrare nefas esse credunt; qui hanc monstraverit, huic subito ulcus in manu futurum. Iridem habent Sinae pro signo libidinis effrenatae quae regnat.' (74)

The Slavic name for the rainbow is O. Sl. duga, Serv. and Russ. duga, duga nebeskia, Boh. duha, prop. a stave (tabula, of a cask), hence bow; the Servians say, any male creature that passes under the rainbow turns into a female, and a female into a male (Vuk sub v.). (75) Two Slovènic names we find in Murko: mávra, mávritsa, which usually means a blackish-brindled cow; and bozhyi stolets, god's stool, just as the rainbow is a chair of the Welsh goddess Ceridwen (Dav. Brit. myth. 204); conf. 'God's chair,' supra p. 136. Lett. warrawihksne, liter. the mighty beech? Lith. Laumês yosta, Lauma's or Laima's girdle (sup. p. 416); also dangaus yosta heaven's girdle, kilpinnis dangaus heaven's bow, urorykszte weather-rod; more significant is the legend from Polish Lithuania, noticed p. 580, which introduces the rainbow as messenger after the flood, and as counsellor. Finn. taiwancaari, arcus coelestis. In some parts of Lorraine courroie de S. Lienard, couronne de S. Bernard. In Superst. Esth. no. 65 it is the thunder-god's sickle, an uncommonly striking conception.

To the Greeks the irij was, as in the O. Test., a token of the gods, Il. 11, 27; but at the same time a half-goddess Irij , who is sent out as a messenger from heaven. The Indians assigned the painted bow of heaven to their god Indras. In our own popular belief the souls of the just are led by their guardian-angels into heaven over the rainbow, Ziska's Oestr. volksm. 49. 110.

As for that doctrine of the Edda, that before the end of the world Bifröst will break, I find it again in the German belief during the Mid. Ages that for a number of years before the Judgment-day the rainbow will no longer be seen: 'ouch hôrt ich sagen, daz man sîn (the regenpogen) nieht ensehe drîzich jâr (30 years) vor deme suontage,' Diut. 3, 61. Hugo von Trimberg makes it 40 years (Renner 19837):

Sô man den regenbogen siht,

sô enzaget diu werlt niht

dan darnâch über vierzec jâr;
so the rainbow appear, the world hath no fear, until thereafter 40 year. Among the signs the Church enumerates of the approach of the Last Day, this is not to be found (see Suppl.).




ENDNOTES:

71. Origin of the Grk. constell. (in Abh. der Berl. acad. 1826, p. 19-63). [Back]

72. Brûar-spordr (we still speak of a bridge's head, tête de pont), as if an animal had laid itself across the river, with head and tail resting on either bank. But we must not omit to notice the word spordr (prop. cauda piscis); as röst, rasta denote a certain stadium, so do the Goth. spaúrds OHG. spurt a recurring interval, in the sense of our '(so many) times': thus, in Fragm. theot. 15, 19, dhrim spurtim (tribus vicibus), where rastôm would do as well. Do the 'rûnar â brûarsporði,' Sæm. 196ª mean the rainbow? [Back]

73. Giants are often made bridge-keepers (p. 556n.): the maiden Môðguðr guards giallarbrû, Sn. 67. [Back]

74. Chi-king ex lat. P. Lacharme, interpr. Jul. Mohl, p. 242. [Back]

75. Like the contrary effects of the planet Venus on the two sexes in Superst. I, 167. [Back]