Chapter 29

Latin, Romance and German poems of the Mid. Ages, as early as the 12^th cent. it seems to me, introduce the player's die as a personal demonic being; the Cod. Monac. ol. benedictobur. 160ª fol. 94 contains the following passage: 'cum sero esset una gens lusorum, venit Decius in medio eorum, et dixit, Fraus vobis! nolite cessare ludere, pro dolore enim vestro missus sum ad vos;' and fol. 97b speaks of the 'secta Decii,' i.e. of dicers. Other auths. are given by Ducange sub v. Decius = talus, taxillus, with a correct explanation of the word by the Fr. dé, O. Fr. dez, Prov. dat, datz, It. Sp. dado = Lat. datus, (7) because in playing 'dare' was used for edere, jacere. The same Munich codex fol. 95b furnishes another remarkable phrase: 'nil hic expavescimus preter Hashardi minas,' the threatenings of the die; yet 'hasehart,' which is known to MHG. poets also, (8) can only be traced to the Fr. hasart, hasard, whose own origin is obscure, whose wider meaning brings it sooner to the verge of personifcation. Add to all this, that the Indian myth makes Dvâpara, a demon, squeeze himself into the dice, and that these come in the shape of birds, Bopp's Nalus pp. 38-9. 50 (see Suppl.).

Scarcely will a deification grow out of notions of place; on the other hand, the idea and name of a deity can be transferred to space. Thus from the heathen Hali, Hel, arose the christian hell; the ON. laufey (p. 246) is perhaps another instance, and the idea of a god often mingles with that of wood and grove.

Abstract immaterial objects open a far wider field for personaifications; and here we see female ones decidedly predominate over male.

Of the latter the most striking instances are, I think, the following. Donar is pictured at once as father and grandfather (p. 167); Aija to the Lapps, Ukko to the Finns, are grandfather as well as thunder. Wunsch, Oski, a name of Wuotan (p. 143) signifies much the same as the female figures Sâlida, Fruma, Carij; and the Gr. poqoj (wish, longing) occasionally occurs as Poqoj. If I am right in my interpretations of Gibika (p. 137), Gáuts (pp. 23. 367-72), Sigi (pp. 27. 371), we can easily find female beings to match them also. All these names belonged to the highest god, whose creative bounty blesses; others to his near kinsman the majestic god of war: Wîg (pugna, p. 203, conf. Graff 1, 740) and Hadu (pp. 207. 223), to which many female names correspond, Hilta, etc. (9) With Yggr (p. 208) I have identified the Pallor and Pavor of the Romans; Omi, Wôma is better explained as elemental. What comes nearer to Wîg and Hadu is Death, Dauþus (p. 842), which likewise from a male becomes a female person; that death is immediately related to hunger is shown in our language, Goth. svults being mors, and ON. sultr fames [Germ. sterben, Eng. starve], like limoj hunger, loimoj pestilence; and personifications start up on every side: hûngr is Hel's dish, sultr her knife (Sn. 33), Herbout (Renart 23362. Roman de la rose 18097) is a visitation of famine, a name I derive from the OHG. Heribalt, for Hunger stalks like a mighty warrior through the world: 'ferid unmet grôt Hungar hêtigrim obar helido barn,' Hel. 132, 8. 'der Hunger gie überal, breite sich in die werlt wîte,' Diut. 3, 101. The Roman Fames is fem., her personality comes out in Ov. Met. 8, 800. Doubt still hangs over the comparison attempted on p. 374 between a MHG. Billich and the Eddic Bil or Bîl, whose own being is as yet unexplained; but that the sexes do interchange is most satisfactorily proved by the frequent appearance, side by side, of an identical god and goddess, who are parent and child, or brother and sister, as Niörðr and Nerthus, Freyr and Freyja, Liber and Libera. So Berhta became Berchtolt, p. 279 (see Suppl.).

Of goddesses and godlike women that have sprung out of moral ideas, the number is far greater (p. 397). Under various forms a divine mother stands beside the father or grandfather: frau Uote, ancestress of all the heroic families (Zeitschr. f. d. a. 1, 21), Holda the gracious, Berhta the bright, Frouwa, Freyja the fair or happy, Sippia, Sif the kindly (p. 309). Folla, Fulla, Abundia means fulness of blessing rather than full-moon; the Romans hallowed Copia with her horn of plenty; 'aurea fruges Italiae pleno defundit Copia cornu,' Hor. Ep. i. 12, 28. 'divesque meo bona Copia cornu est,' Ov. Met. 9, 85. Snotra the wise, well-behaved, Sn. 38; the word lived on as an adj., Goth. snutrs, AS. snotor, ON. snotr, prudens, callidus, liter. emunctae naris, OHG. snozar by rights, but snotar appears to be used also (Graff 6, 845); any discreet sensible woman can be called snotra. Three âsynjor, who are protectresses in the sense of the Roman Tutela, are cited by Sn. 38: Vör, OHG. prob. Wara, she who is aware and wary, from whom nothing can be hidden; Syn, who guards the doorway, with which I connect the Goth. sunja veritas, sunjôns defensio (sunjô p. 310 was an error), and the sunnis excusatio found in our oldest laws, so that the meaning seems to be defence; Hlîn, whom Frigg has set for the protection of all men that are in peril, from hlîna tueri, fovere. (10) Even Hali, Halja is a sheltering goddess, who hides us in the bosom of the underworld, and originally a kind one.

From the oft-recurring phrases: 'was im thiu fruma gibidig,' Hel. 110, 2. 130, 13; 'thiu fruma ist hiar irougit,' O. i. 15, 32; 'thaz in thiu fruma queman was' 16, 17; 'sô quimit thir fruma in henti' 18, 42; 'nu uns thiu fruma irreimti,' O. ii. 14, 120; one would think this fruma (lucrum, utilitas) had once had a pesonal Fruma underlying it, especially as the OS. gibidig, gibidi, AS. gifeðe (datus, concessus) is habitually used of superior gifts of fortune: tîr gifeðe (gloria concessa), Jud. 136, 5; eád gifeðe (pes concessae). (11) Like the above 'thiu fruma uns irreimta' we have 'thên thiu sâlida gireim,' O. i. 3, 17; girîman again is a higher 'falling to one's lot,' and in O. iii. 9, 11. 12 is the combination: 'fruma thana fuarta, sâlida inti heilî.' And sâlida, like fruma, comes 'in henti,' to hand. The unquestionable personifications of Sâlida have been treated p. 864, etc.

The OHG. name Sigukepa would suit a victory-giving valkyr, as the Norse Victoria or Nikh is in like manner named Sigrdrîfa (p. 435); drîfa is one that drives, and the name Drîfa was also fitly given to a goddess of the snowstorm, for in the heat of battle darts and arrows fly like snowflakes, (12) Holda sends out flakes, Wuotan the arrows. Our Bellona was both Hiltia and Kundia (p. 422).

Beside these divine or at least superhuman beings, from whom proceeded splendour, light, shelter, deliverance and a heap of blessings, especially victory, there were also others who were imagined as personfications of single virtues: as deity branched out bodily into separate powers, its spiritual attributes appeared likewise as though distributed into rays, so as to shine before mankind. But here again, honour, love, truth, gentleness, shame, self-control and pity all assume the guise of goddesses, because the people were accustomed from of old to hand over all that was fair and gracious to the female sex (see Suppl.).

It was the accepted belief that, like the wise-women of heathenism (pp. 400. 424), the virtues selected favourites with whom to lodge and consort. Offended or wronged by evil-doing, they took their leave, and returned to the heavenly dwelling, the place of their birth. In this too they are like the swan-wives, who after long sojourn among men suddenly take wing and seek their better home (p.427).

Such notions must reach a long way back, and be widely spread. Hesiod in Erga 198-200 tells how Aidwj and Nemesij, Shame and Remorse, having wrapt them in white rainment (put the swan-shift on), depart from men to the immortal gods. We still say, Truth and Honour are gone out of the land; a chronicler of the 14^th cent. (Böhmer's Fontes 1, 2) writes: 'tunc enim pax in exilium mirgravit.' Kl. 1575: 'jâ enwil mîn vrowe Ere belîben in dem rîche, sîd alsô jæmerlîche die êre tragende sint gelegen. wer solt si denne widerwegen, swenn ir geswîchet diu kraft? des het gar die meisterschaft mîn lieber vater Rüedegêr. vrowe Ere diu wirt nimmer mêr mit solchem wunsche getragen, als er sie truoc bî sînen tagen.' (Honour will not stay, now her bearers are in such pitiful case. Who is to steady her, when strength fails her? R. had the secret; she'll never again be borne as he bore her.) The hero to whom dame Honour had attached herself, knew how to maintain her equilibrium, to carry her upright. Nithart 135 speaks of a female being Vrômuot (merry-mind) in a way that excludes a human person; something mythical must lie at the back of it. Hiltrât and some other maidens are to meet for dancing, and with them shall fare Frômuot, 'diu ist ir aller wîsel,' queen-bee of them all. They brought their attendants, she at springtime had entered the land, but afterwards she is missing, she has fled out of Austria, probably because she was not held in honour there. The poet closes this (first) song with the exclamation: 'could we but win her back, we should bear her on our hands,' as the hero of the hour (a king, a bride) is raised on high and carried about; the passage on Rüdiger suggests the same kind of 'chairing.' In the second song we are told that Frômuot fareth sorrowful from land to land in search of cheerful men; now who so certain of his happiness and luck, that he dare send an embassy to her? Why, none but prince Friderich, his court by all means let her visit. It is mirth and gaiety that have left the kingdom: frômüete, OHG. frawamuati, OS. frômôd (Hel. 35, 1) means jovial, but Frômuot likewise occurs as a woman's name (Graff 2, 699), it is that of Sigeminne's handmaid in Wolfd. 673-5-6-7. 719, and the personification may have its reason in ancient ways of thinking. (13) In a poem of the early part of the 15^th cent. (Z. f. d. a. 1, 424), frau Gerechtigkeit (righteousness) and her companions say: 'now am I clean rejected and driven to another land......we all have taken flight and are chased out of the land.' So Helbl. 7, 61 makes Wârheit (veritas) and Triuwe (fides) quit the country, but what he further tells of Wârheit is peculiar, how she slipt into a parson, and nestled in his cheek, but left him at last when he opened his lips, 7, 65-102. In 7, 751 vices are summoned to creep (sliefen) into a judge. So that both virtues and vices, like the daemon, take up their abode in men, and retire from them again. But such fancies were not far to seek, and even the elder poets make Minne especially visit the heart of man, possess it, e.g. MS. 1, 26b: 'ach süeze Minne, füege dich in ihr herze, und gib ir minnen muot!' Notice too the naïve question the daughter puts to her mother, MS. 2, 260ª: 'nu sage mir ob diu Minne lebe und hie bî uns ûf erde sî, ald ob uns in den lüften swebe (or whom she imagines living in the air, as the heathen valkyrs glided through it. The mother answers, speaking of Venus: 'si vert unsihtic (travels viewless) als ein geist, si en hât niht ruowe (no rest) naht noch tac;' conf. p. 456.

In the Gute frau 576: 'dô kam vrou Sœlde und Ere, die wurden sîne geverten (companions), die in sît dicke ernerten von aller slahte swære (oft saved him from harm);' 611: 'im enschatte ouch niht sêre, daz vrou Sœlde und vrou Ere sich sîn unterwunden (took charge), dô si'n ûf der strâze vunden (found him on march). vrou S. lôste im diu pfant (difficulties), dar nâch versatzte si ze hant vrou E. aber vürbaz.' Dietr. 49: 'des hete diu Ere zuo im fluht (resorted), durch daz (because) er ir so schône pflac (treated);' 105: 'daz er die Ere het ze hûs.' MS. 2, 174ª: 'vrô Ere kumt mit im gerant.' Wartb. kr. cod. jen. 112: 'ver Triuwe nam (took) an sich die Scham, sam tete diu Zuht, diu Kiusche (so did courtesy, chastity), Milte und Ere alsam, si jâhen daz ir aller vriedel wære (they all declared their darling was) der vürste dâ ûz Düringe lant;' the preceding stanzas make it clear that dame Faith commands and leads the other five (see Suppl.)

It was clumsy of Otfried, after making Karitas (iv. 29) spin and weave the Saviour's tunic (14) in the manner of a heathen norn, to give her for sisters two unfeminine ideas, 'fridu' and 'reht' (v. 23, 125); the Latin Caritas, Pax, Justitia would more fitly have discharged the office of fates, and a German Sippa and Rehtî would have answered to them: Notker in Cap. 133 manages better, when he translates Concordia, Fides, Pudicitia by Gemeinmuoti, Triwa, Chiuski. I bring these examples to show how familiar such personifications were even in the 9-10th cent.; they need not have been invented or introduced first by the MHG. poets.

Minna, even in OHG. (p. 59), could signify not only caritas, but amor and cupido; and there is nothing offensive in Veldek's Lavinia and Eneas addressing Venus as Minne (En. 10083. 10948); in Hartmann, Wolfram and Walther, frou Minne appears bodily (Iw. 1537. 1638. Parz. 288, 4. 30. 291-5. Walth. 14, 10. 40, 26. 55, 16), and Hartmann, who is fond of interweaving dialogue, has a talk with her, Iw. 2971 seq., a thing imitated in Gute frau 328-46-80. A frowe Mâze (modus, meetness) occurs in Walth. 46, 33; a frou Witze in Parz. 288, 14. 295, 8; examples of frou Ere were given a page or two back, and of frou Sœlde p. 865-6. These personifications are brought in more sparingly by Gotfried and Conrad, yet in the Trist. 10929 diu Mâze cuts out a garment, and just before that comes the fine passage (10900) on Isot's figure: 'als si diu Minne dræte ir selber z'eime vederspil, dem Wunsche z'einem endezil, dâ für er niemer komen kan,' as if Venus had made her for a toy to herself, and for utmost bound to Wish, that he can never get beyond. Tristan 4807 has 'diu gotinne Minne,'and Parz. 291, 17 once frou Liebe as well as frou Minne. Frou Ere is freq. in Frauenlob: 'dâ hât vrou Ere ir wünschelruot' 41, 18; 'vroun Eren diener' 134, 18; 'vroun Eren bote' 194, 8; she excludes 'unwîp' from her castle (vesten) 274, 18; 'vroun Eren strâze' 384-5 (see Suppl.).




ENDNOTES:

7. Conf. lé, lez, It. lato, Sp. lado, Lat. latus; né, nez, It. nato, Sp. nado, Lat natus; pré, prez, Prov. pratz, It. prato, Sp. prado, Lat. pratum. [Back]

8. Examples coll. in Z. f. d. a. 1, 577; to which may be added: 'spil geteilet ûf bret ald an hasehart,' Gute frau 1093. 'den hasehart werfen,' Tauler's Sermons in Cod. Argent. A, 89. [Back]

9. Bruoder Zornli, Ergerli (p. 274). H. Sachs i. 5, 538d exhibits Hederlein in a bear's hide as brother of Zenklein. [Back]

10. Snorri, in proof of the three goddesses, quotes as many proverbs: 'kona verðr vör þess er hon verðr vîs,' a woman is wary of what she is aware of; 'syn er fyrir sett,' a defence is set up (when one denies his guilt, conf. Fornm. sög. 9, 5: hann setti þar syn fyri, ok bauð skîrslur); 'sâ er forðaz hleinir,' he that is struggling leans (on the tutelary goddess). From hlîna to slant, klinein, inclinare, Goth. hleinan, comes the causative hleina to lean, Goth. hláinjan. Hláins in Gothic is collis, [slanting or] sheltering hill? I do not see how to reconcile with this the sense attributed to hlîn of a (sheltering?) tree (p. 884). [Back]

11. Eádgifu, OHG. Otikepa, a woman's name = opes largiens, might translate the Lat. goddess Ops. [Back]

12. Ac veluti Boreae sub tempore nix glomerata

spargitur, haud aliter saevas jecere sagittas. Walth. 188.

Von beidenthalben flouch daz scoz (flew the shots)

alsô dicke sô der snê (as thick as snow). Alex. 2886 (3235).

Daz geschoz als diu snîe gie (went),

und die wurfe under daz her (and the darts among them). Wigal. 10978. [Back]

13. The emendation proposed in Altd. bl. 1, 371, 'vrou Muot,' is actually found in MsH. 3, 218b, in case the var. lectt. 768b have had full justice done them. But I have never met with the simple Muot as a woman's name. [Back]

14. The tunica inconsutilis (giscafôta sia mit filu kleinên fadumon joh unginâtên redinon kleinêro garno), and acc. to the rendellied spun by Mary and wrought by Helena. Whence arose this myth? Greg. Tru. mirac. 1, 8 has already 'tunica Christi non consuta.' [The author forgets the 'coat without seam,' citwn arrafoj, John 19, 23.] [Back]