Chapter 31
Guro is apparently the same as gurri, ON. gîfr (giantess, p. 526);
but gurri is also huldra (Faye 10), who is described as a beautiful woman with
a hideous tail (ib. 25. 39). Huldra may be likened to our Holda all the more,
because she takes unchristened infants with her. Guro, as a leader of the furious
host, answers perfectly to the description given of all the others (65)
(see Suppl.).
If we now review the entire range of German and Scandinavian stories
about the Furious Host, the following facts come to the front. The myth exhibits
gods and goddesses of the heathen time. Of gods: Wuotan, and perhaps Fro, if
I may take 'Berhtolt' to mean him. We can see Wuotan still in his epithets of
the cloaked, the bearded, which were afterwards misunderstood and converted
into proper names. Saxo Gram. p. 37 says of Othin: 'albo clypeo tectus, album
(s. l. pro 'altum') flectens equum.' Sleipnir was a light gray horse (Sn. 47),
what was called apple-gray (pommelé, AS. æppelfealo). Then we see both the name
and the meaning [m. or f.] fluctuate between frô Wôdan and frôwa Gôda. A goddess
commanding the host, in lieu of the god, is Holda, his wife in fact. I am more
and more firmly convinced, that 'Holda' can be nothing but an epithet of the
mild 'gracious' Fricka; conf. Sommer's Thür. sag. 165-6. And Berhta, the shining,
is identical with her too; or, if the name applies more to Frouwa, she is still
next-door to her, as the Norse Freyja was to Frigg. It is worth noting, that
her Norweg. legend also names a 'Huldra,' not Frigg nor Freyja. The dogs that
surround the god's airy chariot may have been Wuotan's wolves setting up their
howl. A Scand. story not well authenticated (66)
makes Oðinn be wounded by a boar, like Hakelbernd, and this wounding seems altogether
legendary (p. 921-2); when the boar sucked the blood out of the sleeping god,
some drops fell on the earth, which turned into flowers the following spring.
These divinities present themselves in a twofold aspect. Either
as visible to human eyes, visiting the land at some holy tide, bringing welfare
and blessing, accepting gifts and offerings of the people that stream to meet
them. Or floating unseen through the air, perceptible in cloudy shapes, in the
roar and howl of the winds (p. 632), carrying on war, hunting or the game of
ninepins, the chief employments of ancient heroes: an array which, less tied
down to a definite time, explains more the natural phenomenon (conf. Haupt's
Zeitschr. 6, 1291. 131). I suppose the two exhibitions to be equally old, and
in the myth of the wild host they constantly play into one another. The fancies
about the Milky Way have shewn us how ways and waggons of the gods run in the
sky as well as on the earth.
With the coming of Christianity the fable could not but undergo
a change. For the solemn march of gods, there now appeared a pack of horrid
spectres, dashed with dark and devilish ingredients. Very likely the heathen
themselves had believed that spirits of departed heroes took part in the divine
procession; the christians put into the host the unchristened dead, the drunkard,
the suicide (conf. p. 822), who come before us in frightful forms of mutilation.
The 'holde' goddess turns into an 'unholde,' still beautiful in front, but with
a tail behind. (67) So much of her
ancient charms as could not be stript off was held to be seductive and sinful:
and thus was forged the legend of the Venus-mount. Their ancient offerings too
the people did not altogether drop, but limited them to the sheaf of oats for
the celestial steed, as even Death (another hunter, p. 845-6) has his bushel
of oats found him (p. 844).
When born again as heroes, the gods retained their genuine old
character undimmed. Thus we see Dietrich, Ekhart, Arthur, Charles, Waldemar,
Palnatoke, nay, king Christian, significantly incorporated in the roving company,
without the slightest detriment to their dignity or repute among the people.
At the same time its due weight must be allowed to another view, which degrades
the gods into devils, the goddesses into hags and witches: here the devil might
easily spring out of the giant of old.
The last lodgment found by the fable is when it settles on individual
hunters and lovers of hunting of modern times, such as Hackelberg, the heath-rider
Bären, squire Marten, Mansberg the baron, &c. These look almost like historic
personages, but narrowly examined they will in every case melt into mythic ones.
The people's conscientious care to point out Hakelnbernd's tomb seems to indicate
a heathen worship, to which even monuments of stone were consecrated.
The similar course taken by the history of the myth in Scandinavia
and in Germany is a fresh guarantee that the same heathen faith prevailed there
and here. Saxony, Westphalia, Mecklenburg, Hesse have still several features
in common with the North; South Germany has retained fewer. So there come out
points of agreement with Celtic legend; none with Slavic, that I can discover,
unless the nocturnal rides of Svantovit (p. 662) are to be taken into account.
I have yet to mention an agreement with Greek fable,
which seems to prove the high antiquity of that notion of a giant and hunter.
To the Greeks, Orion was a gigantic (pelwrioj)
huntsman, who in the underworld continues to chase the quarry on the Asphodel-mead
(Od. 11, 572), and forms a brilliant constellation. Homer speaks of Orion's
hound (Il. 22, 29) seen in the sky below him; in flight before him are the Pleiads
(a bevy of wild doves, Od. 12, 62), and the Great Bear herself appears to watch
him (dokeuei, Od. 5, 274).
(68) Did our ancestors connect the same group of stars
with their myth of the wild hunt? I have left it doubtful on p. 727. We might,
for one thing, see such a connexion in Orion's AS. name of boar-throng (eoforþryng);
and secondly add, that the three stars of his belt are called the distaff of
Fricka, who as 'Holda' heads the furious host, and looks after her spinsters
just at the time of his appearing at Christmas. Can it be, that when the constellation
takes name from Fricka, her spindle is made prominent; and when Wuotan or a
giant-hero lends his name, the herd of hunted boars is emphasized? The Greek
fable unfolds itself yet more fully. Orion is struck blind, and is led to new
light by Kedalion, a marvellous child who sits on his shoulders. Might not we
match this blind giant with our headless wild hunter? (69)
A feature that strikes me still more forcibly is, that Artemis (Diana) causes
a scorpion to come up out of the ground, who stings Orion in the ankle, so that
he dies: (70) when the sign Scorpio
rises in the sky, Orion sinks. This is like Hackelberend's foot being pierced
by the wild boar's tusk, and causing his death (pp. 921. 947). Orion's [cosmic]
rising is at the summer, his setting at the winter solstice: he blazes through
the winter nights, just when the furious host is afoot. Stormy winds attend
him (nimbosus Orion, Aen. 1, 535); the gift is given him of walking on the sea
(Apollod. i. 4, 3), as the steeds in the aaskereia skim over the wave. Orion's
relation to Artemis is not like that of Wuotan to Holda, for these two are never
seen together in the host; but Holda by herself bears a strong resemblance to
Artemis or Diana (p. 267. 270), still more to the nightly huntress Hecate, at
whose approach dogs whimper (as with frau Gaude), who, like Hel, is scented
by the dogs (p. 667), (71) and for
whom a paltry pittance was placed (as for Berhta and the wild woman, p. 432)
at the trivium (OHG. driwikki), (72)
conf. Theocr. 2, 15 and Virg. Aen. 4, 609: 'nocturnis Hecate triviis ululata
per urbes.' Lucian's Filoyeudhj cap. 22.
24 tells us how such a Ekath appeared in
the wood to Eucrates, and the yelping dogs are there too (see Suppl.).
Tacitus Germ. 43 thus describes the Harii, a people of N.E. Germany:
'truces insitae feritati arte ac tempore lenocinantur; nigra scuta, tincta corpora,
atras ad proelia noctes legunt, ipsaque formidine atque umbra feralis exercitus
terrorem inferunt, nullo hostium sustinente novum ac velut infernum aspectum'
(see Suppl). Is this about 'host of the dead' and 'hellish array' Roman rhetoric,
or was it contained in descriptions of this people given by Germans themselves?
An airy host (p. 940) is also spoken of by Pliny 2, 57: 'armorum crepitus et
tubae sonitus auditos e coelo Cimbricis bellis accepimus, crebroque et prius
et postea; tertio vero consulatu Marii ab Amerinis et Tudertibus spectata arma
coelestia ab ortu occasuque inter se concurrentia, pulsis quae ab occasu erant.'
ENDNOTES:
65. Can the 'Gurre wood' in the Waldemar legend have arisen, like 'Hakel wood,' out of the personal name? Conf. Halja and hell. In Schmidt's Fastelabendsamml. p. 76 we find the combination 'der Woor, die Goor, der wilde jäger.' Back
66. Wassenberg p. 72. Creuzer's Symb. 2, 98. I fear Rudbeck had the boldness to adapt the legend of Adonis (p. 949n.) to Oden. Back
67. Conf. 'frau Welt,' dame World, in Conrad's poem p. 196 seq. Back
68. O. Müller on Orion (Rhein. mus. f. philol. 2, 12). Back
69. A malefactor, whose crime is not divulged before his death, is doomed to wander with his head under his arm (Superst. I. 605). Can the being struck (or growing) blind be meant to express ghostly wandering? Back
70. Aratus Phaenom. 637. Ov. Fast. 5, 541. Lucan Phars. 9, 832. Adonis got his death-wound from the boar. Nestor (Jos. Müller 101) tells us, it was prophesied to Oleg that he would die of his horse; he still had it fed, but would not see it again. Five years after, he inquired about it, and was told it was dead. Then he laughed at soothsayers, and went into the stable, where the horse's skeleton lay, but when he trod on the skull, a snake darted out of it and stung him in the foot, whereof he sickened and died (see Suppl.). Back
71. Apparently a slip; for that was Athena.---Trans. Back
72. Cross-roads, the parting of ways, are a trouble
to frau Gaude. Festus sub v. 'pilae, effigies' says these were hung up at such
places for the Lares. [Back]
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
© 2004-2007 Northvegr.
Most of the material on this site is in the public domain. However, many people have worked very hard to bring these texts to you so if you do use the work, we would appreciate it if you could give credit to both the Northvegr site and to the individuals who worked to bring you these texts. A small number of texts are copyrighted and cannot be used without the author's permission. Any text that is copyrighted will have a clear notation of such on the main index page for that text. Inquiries can be sent to info@northvegr.org. Northvegr™ and the Northvegr symbol are trademarks and service marks of the Northvegr Foundation.
|