Chapter 30

Helen is said to have appeared to Homer: legousi de tinej kai twn Omhridwn wj epistata (Elenh) thj nuktoj Omhrw prosetaxe poiein peri twn strateusamenwn epi Troian, boulomenh ton ekeinwn qanaton zhlwtoteron h ton allwn katasthsai. Kai meroj men ti dia thn Omhrou tecnhn, malista de dia tauthn outwj epafroditon kai para pasin onomasthn autou genesqai thn poihsin [Some of the Homeridæ say, that Helena appeared to Homer by night, and bade him sing of those who warred against Troy, she wishing to make their deaths more enviable than other men's lives. And that partly by Homer's art, but chiefly by her, his poetry was made so lovely and world-renowned]. Isocr. 'El. egkwmion in Oratt. Att. ed. Bekker 2, 245.

Bacchus revealed himself to Aeschylus: efh de Aisculoj meirakion wn kaqeudein en agrw fulasswn stafulaj kai oi Dionuson epistanta keleusai tragwdian poiein. wj de hn hmera (peiqesqai gar eqelein) rasta hdh peirwmenoj poiein. outoj men tauta elegen [Aesch. said, that when a boy he fell asleep in the field while watching grapes, and Dionysus appeared to him and bade him write tragedy. In the morning, wishing to obey, he composed quite easily as soon as he tried]. Pausan. i. 21, 2; rasta, as reia is said of the gods (p. 320).

As Aeschylus was watching the vineyard, Teutonic herdsmen were pasturing sheep or oxen when the gift of Wuotan came to them.

Hallbiörn had long wished to sing the praise of a dead minstrel Thorleif, but could not, until Thorleif appeared in the hush of night, unloosed his tongue, and, just as he was vanishing, displayed his shoulder (p. 326). Forn. sög. 3, 102.

The heathen myth was still applicable to christian poets. A poor shepherd in his sleep hears a voice urging him without delay to put the Scriptures into Saxon verse; previously unskilled in song, he understood it from that moment, and fulfilled his commission, Opusc. Hincmari remensis (Par. 1615), p. 643. The like is told in fuller detail of the famous AS. poet Cædmon, Beda's Hist. eccl. 4, 24 (Frau Aventiure p. 28-9). All these poets, on awaking in the morning, succeed in a task untried before (see Suppl.).

Not only does the poetic faculty itself proceed from the gods; they invent the very instruments by which song is accompanied.

Apollo, who in Homer plays the phorminx, is said by Callimachus to have strung the lyre with seven chords; yet the invention of the lyre is ascribed to Hermes, who gave it to Apollo. This is important for us, as in Wuotan there is much of Hermes and of Apollo, with a preponderance of the former. Ingenuity is characteristic of Mercury, and I can scarcely doubt that in our antiquity, as Wuotan was the inventor of writing and rhythm, so he was of some instrument of to accompany singing.

A confirmation of this is the five-stringed harp (kantelo) of the Finns, an invention of their highest god Wäinämöinen, who everywhere represents our Wuotan. First he made kantelo of the bones of a pike, and when it fell into the sea, he made it again of birchwood, its pegs of oak bough, and its strings of a mighty stallion's tail. In the same way Hermes took the tortoise (chelys) out of its shell, and mounted this with strings (Hymn to Merc. 24 seq.). Swedish and Scotch folksongs relate, that when a maiden was drowned, a musician made a harp of her breastbone, the pegs of her fingers, the strings of her golden hair, and the (first) stroke of the harp killed her murderess, Sv. folk v. 1, 81. Scott's Minstr. 3, 81. In one kinderm. no. 28 a bone of the slain brother is made into a shepherd's whistle, and every time it is blown, it publishes the crime; and a Swiss legend tells the same of a flute (Haupt's Zeitschr. 3, 36). The power of music and song was explained by giving the instruments a supernatural origin, and doubtless a remoter antiquity did not leave gods out of the reckoning.

When Wäinämöinen touches his harp, the whole of nature listens, the four-footed beasts of the wood run up to him, the birds come flying, the fish in the waters swim toward him; tears of bliss burst from the god's eyes, and fall on his breast, from his breast to his knees, from his knees to his feet, wetting five mantles and eight coats, Kalew. rune 22-9. Such tears are shed by Freyja (grâtfögr, p. 325), her that well liked song, and was wedded to Oðr; in fairytales lucky maidens have the power to laugh roses and weep pearls.

The strömkarl also breaks into weeping when he sings to the harp (p. 493). But as all nature, animate and inanimate, betrays her sympathy with human lamentations, so at the sound of the bewitching albleich (elf-lay, p. 470), we are told, the rushing river stayed its roar, the fish in the wave clicked with their tongues, the birds of the forest twittered. Next to the gods, it is elves and watersprites that seem the most initiated into the mysteries of music, and Hnikarr the teacher of song stands for Oðinn himself (p. 489).

But from gods the gift of poesy passed to particular heroes, and similar effects are ascribed to their minstrelsy. Two heroes of Teutonic legend are eminent as minstrels: Horant (Herrant, AS. Heorrenda, ON. Hiarrandi, conf. Gramm. 1, 352. Z. f.d. a. 2, 4), of whom it is said in Gudr. 388-9 that by his songs he chained all men whole and sick, and that

diu tier in dem walde ir weide liezen stên,

die würme di dâ solten in dem grase gên,

die vische die dâ solten in dem wâge vliezen,

die liezen ir geverte;
beasts let be their grazing, creeping things and fishes forsook their wonted ways. The saga Herrauðs ok Bosa (Fornald. sög. 3, 323) couples the Hiarranda-hlioð with the enchanting gýgjar slagr (giantess's harp-stroke). Then the hero Volkêr (Folhheri) plays the fiddle to the Nibelungs 1772:

under die türe des hûses saz er ûf den stein,

küener (bolder) videlære wart noch nie dehein:

dô klungen sîne seiten (strings), daz al daz hûs erdôz (rang),

sîn ellen zuo der fuogo (art) diu wârn beidiu grôz.

süezer unde senfter gîgen er began:

dô entswebete er an den betten vil manegen sorgenden man;
he lulled to sleep in their beds full many an anxious man. In Greek mythology Orpheus and Amphion bear mastery in song. When Amphion sang, the stones obeyed his lyre, and fitted themselves into a wall. Rocks and trees followed after Orpheus, wild beasts grew tame to him, even the Argo he lured from dry land into the wave, and dragons he lulled to sleep (entswebete). As Hermôðr, like him, made the descent to Hades [to fetch Balder back], and as it is for this same Balder that all beings mourn, we may fairly suppose that Hermôðr too had worked upon them by music and song, though nothing of the kind is recorded in the Edda (see Suppl.).

Now if poetry was a joint possession of men and gods, if by gods it had been invented and imparted, it necessarily follows that antiquity would regard it as a function and business of the priest, and that the notions of the priest, prophet and poet would meet and touch. And here I attach some weight to our finding the AS. word bregowine (pp. 93. 235), which seems to indicate a follower and friend of the poet-god Bragi, as we at the present day call the minstrel a friend or favourite of the Muses. In lands and times that looked kindly on the tuneful art, we may even suppose that minstrels, especially those of courts, had like priests a peculiar garb; particularly instructive on this point is the information furnished by the Welsh Laws as to the position and privileges of bards at the king's court, and the Norse sagas are unanimous on the estimation in which skalds were held. Poets of the Mid. Ages enjoyed a like distinction at princely courts, both Teutonic and Romance; and a close investigation of this interesting subject might bring out much in our modern customs, that has its source in the very oldest time (18) (see Suppl.).

I call attention to utterances of MHG. poets, which represent the art of song as something not acquired, but inborn, i.e. inspired by God (a sentiment as old as Homer, Od. 22, 347: autodidaktoj d eimi, qeoj de moi en qresin oimaj pantoiaj enefuse ). Heinr. von Morunge 1, 53a says: 'wan ich durch sanc (for song) bin ze der werlte geborn,' it is a burden laid on him, his mission. Walther 26, 4, referring to God: 'sit ich von dir beide wort hân unde wîse.' The Wartb. kr. jen. 102: 'gab iu Got sinne und sanges site.' Even the later Meistersänger speak to the same purpose: 'es trieb der Heilig Geist zwölf männer froh, die fiengen an zu dichten.' Why should not heathen poets in like manner have traced back their gifts to Wuoton's mead?

The singing-matches also seem to have sprung out of the simplest nature of poetry itself. As the wise men of old questioned one another on their knowledge, as heroes proved on each other the prowess of their arms, so shepherds and poets sang for the prize of poetry. Oðinn wishes to sound the wisdom (orðspeki) of the sage giant, Vîngþôrr that of the sage dwarf, the blind guest (19) that of king Heiðrekr; then lays are sung and riddles propounded, Vafþrûðnir expressly stipulating 'höfði veðja við scolom höllo î, gestr, um geðspeki,' Sæm. 33b; they are to wager heads, as in the contests between cunning smiths or chess-players. Lives are staked also in the Wartburg war of minstrels: 'nu wirt gesungen âne vride…..stempfel muoz ob uns nu beiden stân alhie mit sînem swerte breit, er rihte ab unser eime in roubes site, dem man valles jehe!' we'll sing and give no quarter…..over us two shall stempfel stand with his broad sword, and despatch as an outlaw him that gets the fall. This transaction is of legend, not history, but it shews in what a serious light the poetic art was viewed.

And here let me mention the widely circulated myth of the poet who sees his property imperilled, because another's memory has mastered his songs. What passed between Virgil and Bathyllus is related, with alterations, of Arnoldo Daniello and a jongleur (Diez's Leben der troub. p. 352), but so it is of the Indian Kalidasa, whose poem four Brahmans had learnt by heart. The same Kalidasa and Valmiki were held to be incarnations of Brahmâ himself; what could more firmly establish a poet's reputation than to pass for an avatâra of the sublime divinity?

The gods share their power and influence with goddesses, the heroes and priests with wise women. Of the âsynjor, Saga is named next after Frigg in Sn. 36, and together with Sôl in 212; her residence is Sökqvabeckr, sinking beck, a large and roomy place; Sagones (Saga's ness) in Sæm. 154b seems also to take its name from her. In Sæm. 41a Söcqvabeckr is described as a place where cool waters rush: there Oðinn and Saga day by day drink gladly out of golden cups. This is the drink of immortality, and at the same time of poesy. Saga may be taken as wife or as daughter of Oðinn; in either case she is identical with him as god of poetry. With the Greeks the Musa was a daughter of Zeus, but we often hear of three or nine Muses, who resemble our wise women, norns and schöpferins (shapers of destiny), and dwell beside springs or wells. (20) The cool flood well befits the swan-wives, daughters of Wish. Saga can be no other than our sage (saw, tale) the 'mære' of p. 897 personified and deified.

Our 13^th cent. poets personify 'âventiure,' making a frau Aventiure, like the norn, foot it overland to the minstrel's hut, knock and demand admission. (21) To this day, when people take turns in telling stories, they say 'the märlein goes round from house to house.' Suchenwirth no. xxv describes an apparition of dame Aventiure on a blooming ea in the forest; she has travelled through the land to kings and princes as frau Ehre's messenger, and now presents her report; putting a gold ring on her finger, she disappears. I have one thing more to mention, that M. Nethl. poets make a person of 'aventure' in the sense of our MHG . frau Sælde: 'die Aventure wacht,' Maerl. 2, 14. 'dat rat (rote) van Aventuren,' Rein. 6183, just like 'diu Sælde wacht' and 'Sælden rat' (p. 863-8). I am not aware that in this they followed the pattern of any Romance poetry (see Suppl.).

That 'passing round' or alternate telling of myth and märchen was already a Greek and Roman custom, as we may see by Ovid's Met. lib. iv, where the Minyads during their spinning and weaving beguile the time by telling tales, 39:

'Utile opus manuum vario sermone levemus,

perque vices aliquid, quod tempora longa videri

non sinat, in medium vacuas referamus ad aures.'

167:

Desierat, mediumque fuit breve tempus, et orsa est

dicere Leuconoë, vocem tenuere sorores.

274:

Poscitur Alcithoë, postquam siluere sorores.
But it was the festival of Bacchus, the priest had bidden them keep it, 'immunes operum dominas famulasque suorum,' and the god avenged himself by turning their web into a tissue of vines and ivy, and the Minyads into owls and bats. (The song of women at the loom is also mentioned by Agathias, p. 29) Holda and Berhta are often angry at spinning which desecrates their holy day (pp. 270-4), though otherwise they favour and reward it. The norns making visitations have spindles, and they sing of their spinning: the wise women and divine mothers of our antiquity may be regarded as teachers of song, story and spindle.




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