Chapter 19
Dat gafregin ih mit firahim firiwizzo meista (wisest men),
dat ero ni was noh ûfhimil (earth was not, nor sky),
noh paum (tree) nohheinig noh pereg (mountain) ni was,
noh sunnâ ni scein [noh sterno ni cleiz (glistened)],
no mâno (moon) ni liuhta noh der mareosêo (sea).
dô dâr niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo,
enti dô was der eino almahtico Cot (Almighty God alone).
The last line may sound completely christian, and the preceding ones may have
nothing directly opposed to christian doctrine; yet the juxtaposition of earth
and heaven, tree and mountain, sun [and star], moon and sea, also the archaic
forms ero (terra), ûfhimil (cœlum), mareosêo (mare, Goth. marisáivs), which
must be thrown into the scale, ---all have a ring of the Edda:
Vara sandr ne sær, ne svalar unnir,
iörð fanz æva ne upphiminn,
gap var ginnûnga, enn gras hvergi.
sôl þat ne vissi hvar hon sali âtti,
stiörnor þat ne visso hvar þær staði âtto,
mâni þat ne vissi
hvat hann megins âtti.
The words 'niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo' give in roundabout phrase exactly
the notion of ginnûngagap. (9)
These hints of heathenism have gained additional force, now that
OHG. and OS. songs are found to retain the technical term muspilli = ON. muspell;
the close connexion between nifl, Niflheim, and the Nibelungen so intergrown
with our epos (p. 372) does not in any case admit of doubt. Now if these two
poles of the Scandinavian chaos entered into the belief of all Teutonic nations,
the notion of creation as a whole must have been as widely spread. It has been
shown that the Old-German opinion about giants, gods, men and dwarfs closely
agree with the Norse; I am now able further to produce, though in inverted order,
the same strange connexion described in the Edda between a giant's body and
the world's creation.
Four documents, lying far apart in respect of time and place (and
these may some day be reinforced by others) transmit to us a notable account
of the creation of the first man. But, while the Edda uses up the giant's gutted
and dismembered frame to make a heaven and earth, here on the contrary the whole
world is made use of to create man's body.
The oldest version is to be found in the Rituale ecclesiae Dunelmensis
(Lond. 1839), in which a scribe of the 10th
century has interpolated the following passage, an AS. translation being interlined
with the Latin:
Octo pondera, de quibus factus Æhte
pundo, of þæm âworden
est Adam. pondus limi, inde
is Adam. pund lâmes, of þon
factus (sic) est caro; pondus âworden
is flœsc; pund fîres,
ignis, inde rubens est sanguis of
þon reád is blôd and hât;
et calidus; pondus salis, inde pund
saltes, of þon sindon salto
sunt salsae lacrimae; pondus tehero;
pund þeáwes, of þon
roris, unde factus est sudor; âworden
is swât; pund blôst-
pondus floris, inde est varietas mes,
of þon is fâgung êgena;
oculorum; pondus nubis, inde pund
wolcnes, of þon is onstyd-
est instabilitas mentium; pon- fullnisse
þohta; pund windes,
dus venti, inde est anhela fri- of
þon is oroð cald; pund (10) gefe,
gida; pondus (10) gratiae, inde est of þon
is þoht monnes.
senses hominis.
A similar
addition is made to a MS. of the Code of Emsig (Richthofen, p. 211):---'God
scôp thene êresta meneska, thet was Adam, fon achta wendem. thet bênete fon
tha stêne, thet flâsk fon there erthe, thet blôd fon tha wetere, tha herta fon
tha winde, thene thochta fon tha wolken, thene suêt fon tha dawe, tha lokkar
fon tha gerse, tha âgene fon there sunna, and tha blêrem on (blew into him)
thene helga ôm (breath), and tha scôp he Eva fon sîne ribbe, Adames liana.'
The handwriting of this document is only of the 15th
cent., but it may have been copied from an older MS. of the Emsig Code, the
Code itself being of the 14th
cent.
The third passage is contained in a poem of the
12th
cent. on the four Gospels (Diemer 320, 6-20; conf. the notes to
95, 18. 27, and 320, 6):
Got mit sîner gewalt
der wrchet zeichen vil manecvalt,
der worhte den mennischen einen
ûzzen von aht teilen:
von dem leime gab er ime daz fleisch,
der tow becêchenit den sweihc (sweat),
von dem steine gab er im daz pein (bone),
des nist zwîvil nehein (is no doubt),
von den wrcen (worts) gab er ime di âdren (veins),
von dem grase gab er ime daz hâr,
von dem mere gab er ime daz plut (mood, mind),
du habet er ime begunnen
der ougen (eyes) von der sunnen.
Er verlêh ime sînen âtem (his own breath),
daz wir ime den behilten (keep it for him)
unti sînen gesîn (and be his)
daz wir ime imer wuocherente sîn (ever bear fruit).
ENDNOTES:
9. Conf. also Otfr. ii. 1, 3: 'er
sê ioh himil wurti, ioh erda ouh sô herti,' and the description of
chaos in Cædmon 7. 8, particularly the term heolstersceado 7, 11; though
there is little or nothing opposed to Bible doctrine. Conf. Aristoph. Aves 693-4.
[Back]
10. This 'pound of grace' comes in so oddly, that I venture to guess an omission
between the words, of perhaps a line, which described the 8th material.
The two accounts that follow next, after naming eight material ingredients, bring
in the holy breath or spirit as something additional, ti which this gift of 'grace'
would fairly correspond. Another AS. version, given in Suppl., from the Saturn
and Solomon (Thorpe's Anal. p. 95, ed. Kemble p. 180), is worth comparing: here
'foldan pund' becomes 'flæsc, fyres pund blôd, windes p. æ'ung,
wolcnes p. môðes unstaðelfæstnes, gyfe p. fat and geþang,
blôstmena p. eágena missenlîcnist, deawes p. swât, sealtes
p. tearas.'---Here 'gyfe' is right in the middle of the sentence: can it be, that
both 'gefe' and 'gyfe' are a corruption of Geofon the sea god, gifen the sea (supra,
p. 239), which in christian times had become inadmissible, perhaps unintelligble?
It would be strange if water, except as dew, were made no use of; and the 'sea
supplying thought' would agree with the French account, which ascribes wisdom
to him that has an extra stock of sea in him.---Trans. [Back]
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