Chapter 28

What is essential to the notion of a guardian-angel is his being native to us: this distinguishes him from the home-sprite (genius familiaris), who devotes himself to an individual man, but not from birth. Regula Benedicti cap. 7: 'ab angelis nobis deputatis cotidie die noctuque Domino Factori nostro opera nostra nuntiantur.' Berthold preaches (p. 209): 'als daz kint lebende wirt an sîner muoter lîbe, sô giuzet im der engel die sêle în, der almehtige Got giuzet dem kinde die sêle mit dem engel în;' and St. Bernard (sermo 12 in ps. Qui habitat): 'quoties gravissima cernitur urgere tentatio et tribulatio vehemens imminere, invoca custodem tuum, doctorem tuum, adjutorem tuum. in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione, in quovis diversorio, in quovis angulo, angelo tuo reverentiam habe. tu ne audeas illo praesente, quod vidente me non auderes.' One more passage I will transcribe, from Notker's Capella 137: 'allên menniskôn wirdet sunderig unde gemeine huotâre gesezzet. ten heizent si ouh flihtâre (pflichter, care-taker), wanda er alles werches fliget. ten gemeinen betônt (adore) tie liute sament, unde âne daz iogelîh ten sînen (beside that, each his own). fone diu heizet er genius, wanda er genitis sâr gegeben wirt ze flihte. tiser huotâre unde diser getriwo bruoder behuotet iro sêlâ unde iro sinna allero. wanda er ouch tougene gedancha Gote chundet, pediu mag er ioh angelus heizen.' (22) This doctrine, partially retained as we see by the church, seems to have got mixed up with that grosser native superstition of guardian and attendant spirits. Caesar heisterb. 8, 44 supposes every man to have a good and a bad angel, who seeks to bring him weal or woe. The valkyrs too were to a certain extent guardian-spirits of the heroes (pp. 400. 419), and remained bound to them for a time. It is said of slain heroes (Lament 922): 'ir engel vil wol wisten, war ir sêle solten komen,' full well their angels wist whither their souls should go. Other passages speak of these angels: 'sie redeten, daz ir engel muose lachen,' they said her angel must laugh for joy, Wartb. kr. jen. 38; 'ein wîser (wîzer, white?) engel bî dir gât, der dînen tiuvel sô von dir gescheiden hât' 47: 'teile dîn pater noster mite dînem engel' 23; 'ein engel, der dîn hât gepflegen (tended)' 62. 'ich wil gelouben, daz den list dîn engel finde,' will find out a way, Lohengr. p. 3. 'in was ir engel bî,' Geo. 343. 'daz der engel dîn dîner êren hüete!' guard thy honour, MsH. 3, 230b. 'zuo im was geweten ein engel, daz im niht geschach,' Geo. 3205. 'als im sîn engel gab die lêre,' Kolocz. 148; 'daz iuch mîn engel grüeze!' greet you 102; and elsewhere 'daz iuwer mîn engel walte!' Graceful equivalents for 'I from my inmost soul.' (23) (see Suppl.).

In Nialssaga cap. 101 a heathen submits to baptism, but only on the assurance that St. Michael (receiver of souls, p. 854-5) shall thereby become his fylgju engill. And cap. 23 speaks of fylgja Gunnars.

One who is near death sees his angel first: 'þû mant vera feigr maðr, oc munt þû sêð hafa fylgju þîna,' sure thou art fey, and has seen thy f., Nialss. cap. 41. Quite logically, as the man's death severs the bond between him and his fylgja. Then the fylgja presents herself to another person, and offers him her services: Helgi forecast his own death, because a witch riding her wolf appeared to his brother at night, and offered her attendance, 'bauð fylgð sîna; fylgjo beiddi,' Sæm. 14ª. 147ª. When a man sees his fylgja, she is giving him up, quitting him. In Norway the vulgar opinion is, that the fölgie likes to show herself in the shape of some animal that typifies the character of the man she belongs to (Faye p. 77). Can this have indicated a future transmigration ? conf. p. 823. There were fylgjor that, like the dwarfs, stuck to certain families: kynfylgjor, œttarfylgjor; and this is important, as teaching the affinity of such spirits to elves and dwarfs, who (like the white lady, the ancestress Berhta, p. 280) show themselves when a death in the family is imminent.

Hamîngjor, occurring as early as Sæm. 37b. 93b, are very like our personified sœlde: hamîngja too at first denoted fortuna, felicitas, and afterwards a being that bestowed these blessings, holding a middle place between a fate, a guardian-spirit and a goodnatured homesprite; conf. Laxd. saga p. 441. 'Hamîngjor horfnar, heillir horfnar' in Sæm. 93 are those that have abandoned their man.

The ON. landvœtt (p. 441) is, like the fylgja and hamîngja, a female being, not however the guardian-spirit of an individual or a family, but of the whole country. In the code of Ulfliot it is ordered that every ship shall have its figure-head taken down before it come in sight of land (î landssýn), lest the gaping jaws affright the landvœttir: 'sigla eigi at landi með gapandi höfðum ne gînandi triônu, svâ at landvœttir fældist við' (24) (see Suppl.).

With the Slavs the notions of luck, chance and destiny touch one another, yet their mythology is destitute of beings equivalent to the norns and parcae (p. 436). For luck the Servians have srétia [from s-rétiti to meet], the Slovèns srézha, and they personify them too: dobra Srétia (bona Fortuna, Vuk 3, 444) is their agaqh Tuch, their frô Sælde. (25) The Lettish Laima (p. 416) comes nearer the parca or moira: she is called mahmina, i.e. mother, goddess. Then again the fostermother Dehkla (ibid.) by the boon of her milk bestows luck and aptitude: 'kà Dehkla noleek, tà noteek,' as D. disposes, so it happens. (26) In Lith. also Laima = Laimw , Lat. Lamia (see Suppl.).

As the goddess of destiny has both good and evil in her hand, there needs no separate representation of misfortune. Our elder poets however do treat her more or less as a person, and apply to her much the same phrases as to Sælde. 'Unsœlde hât ûf mich gesworn,' Gregor 2394 (so of Tôt, p. 847n.). 'Unsœlde hât mich bedâht,' Troj. 17105. 'der Unsœlden kint,' Iw. 4449. 'dîn heil sîn ungelücke begonde erwecken harte,' Gold. schm. 1306. 'über in het gesworn sînes lîbes unheil,' Klage 1240. 'Unsœlde sî mir ûf getan!' Rab. 896. 'wie in diu Unsœlde verriete,' Dietr. 38b. 'der Unsœlden vart varn,' go the way of, Doc. misc. 2, 163. 'so wirt unheil von mir gejaget,' chased away, Herm. Dam. 42. 'ungelücke, waz ir mir leides tuot!' what hurt you do me, Lampr. Alex. 3065. Other images are peculiar to misfortune: she is a dog bestriding one's path, and barking at one: 'unheil mir über den wec schreit gelîch grôz unheil an bellet (barks, billet? or vellet, velt?)' LS. 1, 239. A M. Nethl. poet ascribes to her a net: 'al hêft dat ongheval nu mi aldus onder tnet ghevaen?' Rein, 6180.-----Two separate stories deserve quoting at greater length: A poor knight sits in the forest, consuming a scanty meal; he looks up and spies in the tree overhead a monstrous being, who cries to him 'I am thy ungelücke.' He invites 'his ill-luck' to share his meal, but no sooner is it down, than he seizes it firmly and shuts it up in an 'eicher' (hollow oak?). From that moment all goes well with him, and he makes no secret of what has happened. One who envies him, wishing to plunge him into misery again, goes to the wood and releases ill-luck; but, instead of burdening the knight any longer, it jumps on the traitor's back, just as a kobold would (LS. 2, 575). This fable was known to H. Sachs iii. 2, 72c: Misfortune shall be made fast with chains and ropes to an oaken stake, so it may visit no houses more, unless some man be so fond to let it loose again.-----The other story may as well be given in Reinmar's own words, MS. 2, 134b:

 Ez was ein gar unsælic man (a most unlucky man)

 in einer stat gesezzen, dar inne er nie dehein heil gewan,

 der dâhte, ich wil versuochen, wie mîn gelüke in fremden landen sî.

 dô im der reise ze muote wart (resolved to travel),

 Unsœlde wart sîn geverte, diu huob sich mit im ûf die vart;

 er lief gegen einem walde, er wânde er wære Unsælden wor-

 den vrî (he weened he was free of U.).

 er sprach: 'Unsœlde, nu bin ich dir entrunnen (escaped).'

 'nein' sprach Unsœlde, 'ich hân den sig (victory) gewunnen;

 swaz du geliefe, daz selbe ich rande (I ran as fast as thou),

 ûf dînem halse (neck) was mîn gemach (I took my ease.)' (27)

 der man dâ zuo im selbe sprach (to himself spake):

 'sô'st niht sô guot, ich enkêre wider ze lande!' (best to turn back.).
Exactly the story of the homesprite, who flits with you, and you cannot shake him off (p. 513): Misfortune personified is here substituted for the more living kobold. Unsælde occurs in the plural too: 'ganc z'allen onselden hin!' in a Lower Rhine poem by Wilhelm (F. A. Reuss p. 13). It reminds me of 'zuo zallen marsen varn' (p. 362; see Suppl.).




ENDNOTES:

22. The Lat. text runs: 'et generalis omnium praesul, et specialis singulis mortalibus genius admovetur, quem etiam praestitem, quod praesit gerundis omnibus, vocaverunt. nam et populi genio, quum generalis poscitur, supplicant, et unusquisque gubernatori proprio dependit obsequium. ideoque genius dicitur, quoniam quum quis hominum genitus fuerit, mox eidem copulatur. hic tutelator fidissimusque germanus animos omnium mentesque custodit. et quoniam cogitationum arcana Superae annuntiat Potestati, etiam angelus poterit nuncupari.' Conf. Porphyry's Vita Plotini p. 14. Plutarch's Vita Antonini p. 430. [Back]

23. Conf. H. Sach's poem 'die engels hut,' and 'der lockige knabe,' in Hebel's Karfunkel. [Not only men, but even some animals, have an angel of their own, Keisersp. brosäml. 19c. The Pass. 337, 46 agrees with Caes. heist.: 'zwêne engel, einen guoten, einen leiden'; yet 'sîn engel' 41 means only the good one, and so it is generally. Conf. Menander's protest (abridged): 'a good daemon is given at birth; never dream that there are evil daemons, for God is good.' Amgels are aways imagined as male; thus, when two ladies appear: 'ob ez von himele wæren zwêne engele (masc.), des enweiz ich niht,' Frib. Trist. The guardian-angels of two friends are also freinds, 18902.---Extr. from Suppl.] [Back]

24. Fornm. sög. 3, 105. Isl. sög. 1, 198-9. This gaping yawning ship reminds me of the Gepanta (navis tardius vecta) in Jordandes cap. 17. [Biarki's fylgja appears as a bear, and fights while B. slumbers; Gunnar's fylgja too is a biarndyr. Glûmr, having dreamt of a woman higher than the hills coming towards him, concludes that Vîgfûs is dead, and this is his hamîngja coming to look for a new place. It follows, that fylgja and hamîngja are one. Similar is the Engl. fetch (Scot. fye) or double, N. Riding waff, wiff, Scot. wraith, Cumbl. swarth (all in Hone's Daybk.) Ir. taise, etc.---Extr. from Suppl.] [Back]

25. The name has given rise to a sad blunder. Antoin in Versuch 1, 50 having paraded a Dalmation goddess Dobra Frichia, he was followed by Karamzin 1, 85, by Jungmann 1, 342, and who knows how many more. It all rests on a clerical error in translating Forti's Viaggio in Dalmazia (Venice 1774); the Ital. text 1, 74 has quite correctly Dobra-srichia. I would have any one beware of likening this false Frichia to our fru Frecke (p. 304). [Back]

26. Magaz. der lett. gesellach., Mitau 1838. 6, 144. [Back]

27. Post equitem sedet atra Curs. Hor. Od. 3, 1. [Back]