Chapter 17

Hence to the general term holde or guoter holde (genius, bonus genius) is added a wazzerholde (p. 266), a brunnenholde (p. 268); to the more general minni a meriminni and marmennill (p. 433). Other names, which explain themselves, are: MHG. wildiu merkint, wildiu merwunder, Gudrun 109, 4. 112, 3. wildez merwîp, Osw. 653. 673; Mod. HG. meerwunder, wassermann (Slav. vodnik), seejungfer, meerweib; ON. haf-frû [[sea-woman]], œs-kona, hafgýgr, margýgr; Dan. havmand, bröndmand (man of the burn or spring), Molb. Dial. p. 58; Swed. hafsman, hafsfru, and more particularly strömkarl (river sprite or man). Wendish vodny muz, water man. The notion of a water-king shows itself in waterconink, Melis Stoke 2, 96. Certain elves or dwarfs are represented as water-sprites: Andvari, son of Oin, in the shape of a pike inhabited a fors, Sæm. 180-1; and Alfrikr, acc. to Vilk. saga, cap. 34, haunted a river (see Suppl.).

The peculiar name of such a watersprite in OHG. was nihhus, nichus, gen. nichuses, and by this term the glossists render crocodilus, Gl. mons. 332, 412. Jun. 270. Wirceb. 978b; the Physiologus makes it neuter: daz nikhus, Diut. 3, 25. Hoffm. Fundgr. 23. Later it becomes niches, Gl. Jun. 270. In AS. I find, with change of s into r, a masc. nicor, pl. niceras, Beow. 838. 1144. 2854, by which are meant monstrous spirits living in the sea, conf. nicorhûs, Beow. 2822. This AS. form agrees with the M. Nethl. nicker, pl. nickers, (Horae Belg. p. 119); Reinaert prose MIIIIIb has 'nickers ende wichteren'; necker (Neptunus), Diut. 2, 224b. 'hêft mi die necker bracht hier?' (has the devil brought me here?), Mone's Ndrl. volkslit. p. 140. The Mod. Nethl. mikker means evil spirit, devil, 'alle nikkers uit de hel;' so the Engl. 'old Nick,' We have retained the form with s, and the original sense of a watersprite, a male nix and a female nixe, i.e., niks and nikse, though we also hear of a nickel and nickelmann. In MHG. Conrad uses wassernixe in the sense of siren: 'heiz uns leiten ûz dem bade der vertânen (accursed) wassernixen, daz uns ir gedœne (din) iht schade' (MS. 2, 200b). (95)

The ON. nikr [[a kind of water spirit, often described as in the form of a horse]] (gen. niks?) is now thought to mean hippopotamus only; the Swed. näk, nek, and the Dan. nök, nok nocke, aanycke (Molb. Dial. p. 4) express exactly our watersprite, but always a male one. The Danish form comes nearest to a Mid. Lat. nocca, spectrum marinum in stagnis et fluviis; the Finn. näkki, Esth. nek (watersprite) seem borrowed from the Swedish. Some have brought into this connexion the much older neha nehalennia (pp. 257, 419), I think without good reason: the Latin organ had no occasion to put h for c, and where it does have an h in German ords (as Vahalis, Naharvali), we have no business to suppose a tenuis; besides, the images of Nehalennia hardly indicate a river-goddess.

I think we have better reason for recognising the water-sprite in a name of Oðinn, who was occasionally conceived of as Neptune (p. 148), and often appears as a sailor and ferryman in his bark. The AS. Andreas describes in a detail, how God Himself, in the shape of a divine shipman escorts one over the sea; in the Legenda Aurea it is only an angel. Oðinn, according to Sn. 3, is called Nikarr or Hnikarr, and Nikuz or Hnikuðr. In Sæm. 46ª, b we read Hnikarr, Hnikuðr, and in 91ª 184ª,b Hnikarr again. Nikarr would correspond to AS. Nicor, and Nikuz to OHG. Nichus. Snorri's optional forms are remarkable, he must have drawn them from sources which knew of both; the prefixing of an aspirate may have been merely to humour the metre. Finn Magnusen, p. 438, accutely remarks, that wherever Oðinn is called Hnikarr, he does appear as a sea-sprite and calms the waves. For the rest, no nickar (like âlfar and dvergar) are spoken of in either Edda. Of the metamorphoses of the nickur (hippop.) the ON. uses the expression "nykrat eða finngâlkat [[the nykr or the great monster]]," Sn. 317 (see Suppl.).

Plants and stones are named after the nix, as well as after gods. The nymphæa (numfaia from numfh) we still call nixblume as well as seeblume, seelilie, Swed. näckblad, Dan. nökkeblomster, nökkerose; the conferva rupestris, Dan. nökkeskäg (nix-beard); the haliotis, a shellfish, Swed. näcköra (nix-ear); the crumby tufa-stone, tophus, Swed. näckebröd, the water sprite's bread. Finn. näkinkenka (mya margaritifera) näkin waltikka (typha angustifolia); the Lausitz Wends call the blossoms or seedpots of certain reeds 'vodneho muzha porsty, potaczky [piorsty, perczatky?], lohszy,' water-man's fingers or gloves. We ourselves call the water-lily wassermännlein, but also mummel, mümmelchen = müemel, aunty, water-aunt, as the merminne in the old lay is expressly addressed as Morolt's 'liebe muome,' and in Westphalia to this day watermöme is a ghostly being; in Nib. 1479, 3 Siglint the one merwoman says of Hadburc the other:

Durch der wæte liebe hât mîn muome dir gelogen,

'tis through love of raiment (weeds) mine aunt hath lied to thee; these merwomen belong, as swan-maidens, to one sisterhood and kindred (p. 428), and in Oswald 673-9 'ein ander merwîp' is coupled with the first. Several lakes inhabited by nixes are called mummelsee (Deut. sag. nos. 59. 331. Mone's Anz. 3, 92), otherwise meumke-loch, e.g., in the Paschenburg of Schaumburg. This explains the name of a little river Mümling in the Odenwald, through old docs. spelling it Mimling. Mersprites are made to favour particular pools and streams, e.g., the Saale, the Danube, the Elbe, (96) as the Romans believed in the bearded river-gods of individual rivers; it may be that the name of the Neckar (Nicarus) is immediately connected with our nicor, nechar (see Suppl.).

Biörn gives nennir as another ON. name for hippopotamus, it seems related to the name of the goddess Nanna (p. 310). (97) This nennir or nikur presents himself on the sea-shore as a handsome dapple-grey horse, and is to be recognised by his hoofs looking the wrong way; if any one mounts him, he plunges with his prey into the deep. There is a way however to catch and bridle him, and break him in for a time to work. (98) A clever man at Morland in Bahus fastened an artfully contrived bridle on him, so that he could not get away, and ploughed all his land with him; but the bridle somehow coming loose, the 'neck' darted like fire into the lake, and drew the harrow in after him. (99) In the same way German legends tell of a great hulking black horse, that had risen out of the sea, being put to the plough, and going ahead at a mighty pace, till he dragged both plough and ploughman over the cliff. (100) Out of a marsh called the 'taufe,' near Scheuen in Lower Saxony, a wild bull comes up at certain times, and goes with the cows of the herd (Harry's Sagen, p. 79). When a thunderstorm is brewing, a great horse with enormous hoofs will appear on the water (Faye, p. 55). It is the vulgar belief in Norway, that whenever people at sea go down, a söedrouen (sea sprite) shows himself in the shape of a headless old man (Sommerfelt, Saltdalens prästegjeld, Trondhjem 1827, p. 119). In the Highlands of Scotland a water sprite in the shape of a horse is known by the name of water-kelpie (see Suppl.).

Water-sprites have many things in common with mountain-sprites, but also some peculiar to themselves. The males, like those of the schrat kind, come up singly rather than in companies. The water man is commonly represented as oldish and with a long beard, like the Roman demigod out of whose urn the river spouts; often he is many-headed (conf. p. 387), Faye p. 51. In a Danish folk-song the nökke lifts his beard aloft (conf. Svenska visor 3, 127. 133), he wears a green hat, and when he grins you see his green teeth (Deut. sag. no. 52). He has at times the figure of a wild boy with shaggy hair, or else with yellow curls and a red cap on his head. (101) The näkki of the Finns is said to have iron teeth. (102) The nixe (fem.), like the Romance fay and our own wise-women, is to be seen sitting in the sun, combing her long hair (Svenska vis. 3, 148), or emerging from the waves with the upper half of her body, which is exceedingly beautiful. The lower part, as with sirens, is said to consist of a fish-like tail; but this feature is not essential, and most likely not truly Teutonic, for we never hear of a tailed nix, (103) and even the nixe, when she comes on shore among men, is shaped and attired like the daughters of men, being recognised only by the wet skirt of her dress, the wet tips of her apron. (104) Here is another point of contact with swan-maidens, whose swan-foot betrays them: and as they have their veils and clothes taken from them, the nixie too is embarrassed by the removal and detention of her gloves in dancing (Deut. sag. nos. 58. 60). Among the Wends the water-man appears in a linen smockfrock with the bottom of its skirt wet; if in buying up grain he pays more than the market price, a dearth follows, and if he buys cheaper than others, prices fall (Lausitz. monatschr. 1797, p. 750). The Russians name their water-nymphs rusálki: fair maidens with green or garlanded hair, combing themselves on the meadow by the waterside, and bathing in lake or river. They are seen chiefly on Whitsunday and in Whitsun-week, when the people with dance and song plait garlands in their honour and throw them into the water. The custom is connected with the German river-worship on St. John's day. Whitsun-week itself was called by the Russians rusaldnaya, in Boh. rusadla, and even in Wallachian rusalie. (105)




ENDNOTES:

95. Gryphius (mihi 743) has a rhyme: 'die wasserlüss auf erden mag nicht so schöne werden,' apparently meaning a water-wife or nixe. In Ziska's Östr. volksm. 54 a kind wassernix, like dame Holla, bestows wishing-gifts on the children. Back

96. The Elbjungfer and Saalweiblein, Deut. sag. no. 60; the river-sprite in the Oder, ibid. no . 62. Back

97. Muchar, in Norikum 2, 37, and in Gastein p. 145, mentions an Alpine sprite Donanadel; does nadel here stand for nandel? A misprint for madel (girl) is scarcely conceivable. Back

98. Landnâmabôk, 2, 10 (Islend. sög. 1, 74). Olafsen's Reise igiennem Island, 1, 55. Sv. vis. 3, 128. Back

99. P. Kalm's Westgöta och Bahusländska resa, 1742, p. 200. Back

100. Letzner's Dasselsche chronik 5, 13. Back

101. The small size is implied in the popular rhyme: 'Nix in der grube (pit), du bist ein böser bube (bad boy); wasch dir deine beinchen (little legs) mit rothen ziegelsteinchen (red brick).' Back

102. On the grass by the shore a girl is seized by a pretty boy wearing a handsome peasant's belt, and is forced to scratch his head for him. While she is doing so, he slips a girdle round her unperceived, and chains her to himself; the continued friction, however, sends him to sleep. In the meantime a woman comes up, and asks the girl what she is about. She tells her, and, while talking, releases herself from the girdle. The boy was more sound asleep than ever, and his lips stood pretty wide apart; then the woman, coming up closer, cried out: 'why, that's a neck, look at his fish's teeth!¨' In a moment the neck was gone (Etwas über die Ehsten, p. 51) Back

103. But we do of nixes shaped like men above and like horses below; one water-sprite takes his name from his slit ears, Deut. sag. no 63. Back

104. In Olaf the Saint's saga (Fornm. sög. 4, 56. 5, 162) a margýgr is pictured as a beautiful woman, from the girdle downward ending in a fish, lulling men to sleep with her sweet song; evidently modelled on the Roman siren. Pretty stories of nixes are told in Jul. Schmidt's Reichenfels, p. 150 (where the word docken = dolls, puppets) and 151. Water-wives when in labour send for human assistance, like she-dwarfs (p. 457). 'They spake at Dr. M. L.'s table of spectra and of changelings, then did Mistress Luther, his goodwife, tell an history, how a midwife at a place was fetched away by the devil to one in childbed, with whom the devil had to do, and that lived in a hole in the water in the Mulda, and the water hurt her not at all, but in the hole she sat as in a fair chamber.' Table-talk 1571. 440b. Back

105. Schafarik in the Casopis cesk. mus. 7, 259 has furnished a full dissertation on the rusalky [from rusy, blond; but there is also ruslo, river's bed, deepest part]. Back