Chapter 1

Then, apart from Saxo, we find a purer authority for the Norse religion preserved for us in the remotest corner of the North, whither it had fled as it were for more perfect safety,---namely, in Iceland. It is preserved not only in the two Eddas, but in a multitude of Sagas of various shape, which, but for that emigration coming to the rescue, would probably have perished in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

To assail the genuineness of the Norse mythology is as much as to cast doubt on the genuineness and independence of the Norse language. That it has been handed down to us both in a clearer and an obscurer shape, through older and more modern authorities, makes it all the easier to study it from many sides and more historically.

Just as little can we fail to perceive the kinship and close connexion of the Norse mythology with the rest of Teutonic mythology. I have undertaken to collect and set forth all that can now be known of German heathenism, and that exclusively of the complete system of Norse mythology. By such limitation I hope to gain clearness and space, and to sharpen our vision for a criticism of the Old German faith, so far as it stands opposed to the Norse, or aloof from it; so that we need only concern ourselves with the latter, where in substance or tendency it coincides with that of inland Germany.

The antiquity, originality and affinity of the German and Norse mythologies rest on the following grounds:

1. The undisputed and very close affinity of speech between the two races, and the now irrefutably demonstrated identity of form in their oldest poetry. It is impossible that nations speaking languages which had sprung from the same stock, whose songs all wore the badge of an alliteration either unknown or quite differently applied by their neighbours, should have differed materially in their religious belief. Alliteration seems to give place to christian rhyme, first in Upper Germany, and then in Saxony, precisely because it had been the characteristic of heathen songs then still existing. Without prejudice to their original affinity, it is quite true that the Germans and the Norse dialects and poetries have their peculiarities of form and finish; but it would seem incredible that the one race should have had gods and the other none, or that the chief divinities of the two should have been really different from one another. There were marked differences no doubt, but not otherwise than in their language; and as the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon and Old High German dialects have their several points of superiority over the Old Norse, so may the faith of inland Germany have in many points its claims to distinction and individuality.

2. The joint possession, by all Teutonic tongues, of many terms relating to religious worship. If we are able to produce a word used by the Goths in the 4th century, by the Alamanni in the 8th, in exactly the same form and sense as it continues to bear in the Norse authorities of the 12th or 13th century, the affinity of the German faith with the Norse, and the antiquity of the latter, are thereby vindicated.

3. The identity of mythic notions and nomenclature, which ever and anon breaks out: thus the agreement of the O.H.G. muspilli, O. Sax. mudspelli, with the Eddic muspell, of the O.H.G. itis, A. Sax. ides, with the Eddic dîs, or of the A. Sax. brosinga mene with the Eddic brîsînga men, affords perfectly conclusive evidence.

4. The precisely similar way in which both there and here the religious mythus tacks itself on to the heroic legend. As the Gothic, Frankish and Norse genealogies all run into one another, we can scarcely deny the connexion of the veiled myths also which stand in the background.

5. The mingling of the mythic element with names of plants and constellations. This is an uneffaced vestige of the primeval intimate union between religious worship and nature.

6. The gradual transformation of the gods into devils, of the wise women into witches, of the worship into superstitious customs. The names of the gods have found a last lurking-place in disguised ejaculations, oaths, curses, protestations. (12) There is some analogy between this and the transfer of heathen myths from goddesses and gods to Mary and the saints, from elves to angels. Heathen festivals and customs were transformed into christian, spots which heathenism had already consecrated were sometimes retained for churches and courts of justice. The popular religion of the Catholics, particularly in the adoration of saints, includes a good many and often graceful and pleasing relics of paganism (see Suppl.).

7. The evident deposit from god-myths, which is found to this day in various folk-tales, nursery-tales, games, saws, curses, ill-understood names of days and months, and idiomatic phrases.

8. The undeniable intermixture of the old religious doctrine with the system of law; for the latter, even after the adoption of the new faith, would not part with certain old forms and usages (see Suppl.).

In unravelling these complex relations, it appears indispensable not to overlook the mythologies of neighbouring nations, especially of the Celts, Slavs, Lithuanians and Finns, wherever they afford confirmation or elucidation. This extension of our scope would find ample reason and justification in the mere contact (so fruitful in many ways) of the languages of those nationalities with Teutonic ones, particularly of the Celtic with Old Frankish, of the Finnish and Lithuanian with Gothic, and of the Slavic with High German. But also the myths and superstitions of these very nations are peculiarly adapted to throw light on the course taken by our domestic heathenism in its duration and decadence.



ENDNOTES:

12. Conf. our 'donner! hammer!' [[thunder! hammer!]] the Serv. 'lele! lado!' the Lat. 'pol! aedepol! me hercle! me castor! mediusfidius,' &c.  (back)