Chapter 35

But no species of superstition had more deeply penetrated the entire Mid. Ages than the presages known under the names of aneganc (an-gang, coming upon), widerganc, widerlouf. A beast, a man, a thing, that you unexpectedly encountered on stepping out of doors or setting out on a journey at early morn, while yet the day is fresh, betokened weal or woe, and admonished you to go on with what you had begun, or to give it up. When Saxo Gram. p. 84 says 'congressionum initia,' what was the Norse word he had in his mind? perhaps viðr-gângr, or still better môt (meeting)? As the beginning of any business is critical (omina principiis inesse solent, Ov. Fasti 1, 178), as the first stepping into a new house, on to a new bridge, is cautiously set about (p. 1021), and the god or daemon claims the first he meets (see below); so men took note of every sign that attended a purposed ride or journey. The M. Latin term for it is superventa (sc. res), what surprises, supervenit (Fr. survient) (16); or even, taking it literally, what floats above us in the air, though that indeed would only apply to the flight of birds. Hincmar de divortio Lotharii (supra, p. 1099) says: 'ad haec...... pertinent, quas superventas feminae in suis lanificiis vel textilibus operibus nominant.' These the Greek called enodia sumbola, and we have most of them in common with them, with the Romans, nay with Oriental nations. In view of the almost universal diffusion of these 'angänge,' it is hardly credible that they first came to the Germans in the wake of Latin literature: they rest on the older kinship of all European nations, and the very earliest observer of our kindred, Tacitus, remarked this mode of divination among them: 'auspicia sortesque, ut qui maxime, observant......et illud quidem etiam hic notum, avium voces volatusque interrogare.' And of horses, p. 658. Many of our old myths lay a stress on the primitiae: we need only mention Wodan's promising the victory to those whom he should first set eyes upon at sunrise, p. 134 (see Suppl.).

I will first take passages that group several things together, and then elucidate particulars.

To begin with Xenophon's Memorab. i. 1, 4: all oi men pleistoi fasin upo te twn opniqwn kai twn apantwntwn apotrepesqai te kai protrepesqai. And, i. 1, 14: touj de kai liqouj kai xula kai ta tuconta qhria sebesqai, i.e. 'obvia animalia,' not, as some have taken it, 'vulgaria, ubivis obvia.'

The earliest evidence from our own Mid. Ages, but one that speaks very generally, is found in St. Eligius, Sup. A: 'nullus observet egrediens aut ingrediens domum, quid sibi occurrat, vel si aliqua vox reclamantis fiat, aut qualis avis cantus garriat, vel quid etiam portantem videat.' Greg. Turon. 7, 29: 'et cum iter ageret, ut consuetudo est barbarorum, auspicia intendere coepit, ac dicere sibi esse contraria.' We find more detail in John of Salisbury's Polycraticus sive de nugis curial. 1, 13, which however I do not quote in full: 'Si egrediens limen calcaveris aut in via offenderis, pedem contine.......Cum processeris, abscondita futurorum aves quas ominales vocant tibi praenunciabunt. Quid cornix loquatur diligenter ausculta, situmque ejus sedentis aut volantis nullo modo contemnas. Refert etenim plurimum, a dextris sit an a sinistris, qua positione respiciat cubitum gradientis, loquax sit an clamosa, an silens omnino, praecedat an sequatur, transeuntis expectet adventum, an fugiat, quove discedat. Corvus vero, quem non minori diligentia observabis, rebus majoribus auspicatur, et usquequaque cornici praejudicat. Porro cygnus in auguriis ales gratissima nautis, utpote quae aquarum domestica quadam gratia familiaritatis eorundem secreta praenoverit. Si avis quae vulgo dicitur albanellus (see below) praetervolans viam a sinistris feratur ad dextram, de hospitii hilaritate ne dubites, si contra, contrarium expectabis. Leporis timebis occursum, lupo obvio congratulaberis; ovibus gratanter obviam gradieris, dum capram vites. Bobus triturantibus, libentius tamen arantibus obviabis; nec displiceat si viam ruperint, quia mora itineris hopitii gratia compensabitur. Mulus infaustus est, asinus inutilis, equus quandoque bonus est; habet vero jurgiorum et pugnae significationem, interdum tamen ex colore et visu mitigatur. Locusta itinerantium praepedit vota, econtra cicada viatoris promovet gressum. Aranea dum a superioribus filum ducit, spem venturae pecuniae videtur afferre. Sacerdotem obvium aliumve religiosum dicunt esse infaustum; feminam quoque, quae capite discooperto incedit, infelicem crede, nisi publica sit.' ----- Petrus Blesensis (d. about 1200) epist. 65: 'Somnia igitur ne cures, nec te illorum errore involvas, qui occursum leporis timent, qui mulierem sparsis crinibus, qui hominem orbatum oculis, aut mutilatum pede, aut cuculatum habere obvium detestantur; qui de jucundo gloriantur hospitio, si eis lupus occursaverit aut columba, si a sinistra in dexteram avis S. Martini volaverit, si in egressu suo remotum audiant tonitrum, si hominem gibbosum obvium habuerint aut leprosum.' (17) ---- Hartmann makes his dauntless Erek defy the danger:

8122. Keins swachen glouben er phlac (cherished).
er wolt der wîbe liezen (lot-casting)
engelten noch geniezen (pay for, not partake).
swaz im getroumen (dream) mahte
dar ûf het er kein ahte (took no heed);
er was kein weter-sorgœre (no weather-watcher):
er sach im als mære
des morgens über den wec varn
die iuweln (owls) sam den mûsarn
ouch hiez er selten machen
dehein fiur ûz der spachen
daz man in dar an sæhe,
er phlac deheiner spæhe.
ez was umbe in sô gewant,
im was der tisch in der hant
als mære enge sô wît,
und swaz ungelouben gît (gibt, gives)
dâne kêrte er sich nicht an.

6182. dehein ungeloube in muote (no superstition in mind)
in dem hûse noch ûf dem wege,
er lie (liez, left) ez allez an Gotes pflege (care).
Swaz im des morgens wider lief (ran against),
oder swie vil diu krâ gerief (how the crow cried),
swie vil der mûsäre umbe geflouc (how the m. flew round),
der ungeloube in niht betrouc (deluded):
wand' er (for he) niht dar ûf ahte (heeded).
Wir haben maneger slahte (many a sort)
bôsheit unde gelouben (sin and superstition),
dâ mit wir uns nû rouben (whereby we rob us)
aller unser sælecheit (bliss).
ez ist vil manegem manne leit (loth, painful)
swenne im ein wîp daz swert gît (gives);
daz lie der riter âne nît (W. took no offence),
ern' ahtet niht dar ûf ein hâr,
ez wære gelogen (false) oder wâr:
er het in Gotes gnâde gegeben
beidiu sêle unde leben.
swaz im des morgens wider gie (ging; met him),
daz engeflôch (shunned) der riter nie,
wan (for) guoten gelouben het er ie (ever).

er verbôt allen aneganc,

vogel-vluc, stimme oder sanc,

daz dâ geloupte nieman an;
and Walth. 118, 16 says of a wretched man: 'wizzet, swem der anegenget an dem morgen fruo, deme gêt ungelücke zuo,' whom he on-gangeth at early morn, on him shall come misfortune. The Nethl. Reinaert 1055 expresses the notion by 'tekîn ende ghemoet,' token and meeting; (18) Reineke, ed. Hakemann p. 52, by gemöte, and people still say 'to möte komen.' ----- The ON. heill (omen) is a more general expression; but one lay of the Edda (Sæm. 184b) mentions three signs favourable to the warrior at the swinging of swords (at sverða svipon): the first is, if the dark raven follow him (fylgja ens deyqva hrafns), (19) which calls to mind the raven in the flag of fortune (p. 1112); the other two are clearly 'angänge,' for it says: 'ef þû ert ût umkominn, ok ert â braut bûinn,' if thou hast gone out and art on thy road; then the second sign is: 'tvâ þû lîtr â tâi standa hrôðrfûsa hali,' thou seest two fame-thirsty men (warriors) stand on the start; (20) and the third sign: 'ef þû þiota heyrir ûlf und ask-limom, heilla auðit verðr ef þû ser þâ fyrri fara,' if thou hear a wolf howl under ash-boughs, good hap is destined thee if then (21) thou see him run forwards. It is Hnikkar (Oðinn) that puts Sigurð up to these omens. But against the three signs of luck are set two of misfortune: one is, if the hero have to fight toward set of sun (sîð-skînanði systor mâna); another, if in going forth to battle he trip with the foot (ef þû fœti drepr). ---- Then in the Gesellensprüche I see notable instances of angang in the frogs of the pool, the ravens, the three old women, the maiden with the goat (A.w. 1, 91. 107. 111). Again, Ihre de superst. p. 82: 'Ejusdem indolis est, quod tradunt nostrates de occursu hominum et animalium, e.g. si cui domo sua mane egredienti occurrat mendicus, vetula, claudus, aut felis, canis, vulpes, lepus, sciurus, is dies inauspicatus habetur. Observant haec prae aliis sagittarii et piscatores, qui ejusmodi ominibus oblatis haud raro domum revertuntur et a proposito abstinent.' Lasicz 48: 'Quin ipse quoque rex Wladislaus, gente Lituanus, has a matre sua superstitiones didicerat, ut eum diem infaustum sibi futurum crederet, quo primum calceum sinistrum fortuito accepisset. Ad hoc movebat se interdum in gyrum stans pede uno, foras e cubili proditurus. Quorum similia multa observantur a Samagitis; quidam infeliciter se venaturos sibi persuadent si domo egressis mulier occurrat, seu quis certum numerum capiendorum leporum, vulpium, luporum nominet.' Lucas David's Chron. i. 146-7 says of the ancient Prussians, that they regarded an encounter with a sick man as bad, with a mounted man as good, with a fox or hare as bad (see Suppl.).

It is hard to get at the meaning of all these divers prognostics.

First, of human angang. Ill-luck is supposed to follow that of an old woman, of a woman with dishevelled hair, or what comes to the same thing, loosened headband (découverte, discooperta, It. scoperta). If an old wife meet you in the morning, if you have to pass between two old wives, your day is unlucky, Sup. I, 58. 380. 791. 976. When a huntsman in the morning comes upon an old woman, he lies down and makes her step over him, to ward off mischief (Hessian pop. cust.). In Switzerland to meet a woman is unlucky, at least on New-year's day (Tobler 447b). Swedish superst. K, 53 holds all meeting with woman-folk bad, unless it be a lön-hora, as the parqenoj in Chrysostom betokened an unlucky day, and the pornh a lucky. So in Sup. I, 177: the virgin or priest is an evil sign, the prostitute a good. (22) But Ihre speaks expressly of a vetula, so does Arndt's Journey to Sweden 1, 44, and a Finnish song (Schröter's Runen p. 67): 'go forth by early morn, lest ancient crone with crooked chin do squint at thee.' This last hint plainly sets before us the notion of a witch, still more does the loose flying hair (p. 1089) that of a night-wife (Sup. I, 878), fortune-teller, heathen priestess, conf. the Cimbrian polioqrix p. 55. Veldek 21b paints his Sibylla as andfas (horrida crinibus), 'daz mies lockehte hienc ir ûz den ôren' (non comptae mansere comae 6, 48). And this view is confirmed by the approach of a woman spinning being hurtful (Sup. I, 135), for a witch is a field-spinster, i.e. a norn, a fate (p. 1088). So early as Pliny 28, 5: 'pagana lege in plerisque Italiae praediis cavetur ne mulieres per itinera ambulantes torqueant fusos, aut omnino detectos ferant, quoniam adversetur id omnium spei, praecipueque frugum.' This again looks remarkably like the scrutinies held by our goddesses as to whether spindles were spun full or not, pp. 269. 274.




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