Chapter 37

Stones are far less mythical than herbs, though among them also the noble are distinguished from the base. Stones neither grow so livingly, nor are they so accessible, as plants: whilst any shepherd or traveller can approach the flower in field or wood, precious stones are not produced on the surface of our soil, they are wrung from the bowels of the earth, and imported from distant lands. There was a meaning therefore in calling herb-lore heathen, and stone-lore Jewish (p. 1190): Jewish and Moorish merchants fetched the gem from the far East. The miraculous and medicinal power of precious stones was known early in the Mid. Ages, but never was naturalized amongst us, hence also the very few Teutonic names for them, or legends about them: a fact which goes to confirm the home character of our plant-myths. The widely circulated works of Marbod, Evax, Albertus Magnus and others on precious stones have left us little of lasting legend among the people as Walahfried or Macer Floridus, who in the dry learned fashion of physicians treat of herbs. Even Pliny's account in his 36^th book seems to have had no effect at all on our superstitions. (16)

Yet a few time-honoured myths there are. The Edda names a holy iarkna-steinn, Sæm. 137b. 139a. 213a. 238d, which in the Cauldron-raid was thrown into the hot water, and which the cunning smith Völundr could manufacture out of children's eyes. The AS. eorcan-stân glosses both 'margarita' and 'topazion'; in Cod. Exon. 73, 27. 238, 12. 478, 7 it has the general sense of precious-stone (eorcnan-stân is appar. a corruption). A corresponding Goth. aírkna-stáins, OHG. erchan-stein may safely be assumed, as 'aírknis' actually means genuine, holy, and 'erchan' survives in similar compounds (Graff 1, 468). But it seems to be the oval milk-white opal, otherwise called orphanus, pupillus, MHG. weise (orphan), and so precious that it graced the crown royal of Germany. Albertus M. says: 'Orphanus est lapis qui in corona Romani imperatoris est, neque unquam alibi visus est, propter quod etiam orphanus vocatur. Est autem colore vinosus, subtilem habens vinositatem, et hoc est sicut si candidum nivis candens seu micans penetraverit in rubeum clarum vinosum, et sit superatum ab ipso. Est autem lapis perlucidus, et traditur quod aliquando fulsit in nocte, sed nunc tempore nostro non micat in tenebris. Fertur autem quod honorem servat regalem.' If the OHG. weiso had already had the sense of the stone, it would hardly fail to appear in the glosses. We find it in full play in the MHG. poets, ever since the tale was told of how in distant land Duke Ernst with his sword cut it out of the living rock, and presented it as a gift to the king (ll. 3604-23 and 5543 of the Lay, and in Odo's Latin poem 6, 357). 'Philippe setzen weisen ûf!' Walth. 9, 15. 'schouwe wem der weise ob sîme nacke stê, der stein ist aller fürsten leitesterne,' Walth. 19, 3; conf. Helbl. 2, 881. 'der künec alsô den weisen hât,' Ms. 1, 15a. 'wie si durch den berc har wieder kâmen, dâ sie der krône weisen inne nâmen,' Ms. 2, 138a. 'den weisen ie vil hôhe wac (prized) der keiser und daz rîche, dur daz (because) nie sîn gelîche wart unter manigem steine,' Troj. 20. 'ich stich im abe den weisen,' Otto bart. 314; see also passages in Heinr. von Krolewiz V. U., coll. in Lisch p. 208. Albert and Conrad account for the name, by the stone having no equal, and standing like an orphan cut off from kin; so the gloss on Sspgl 3, 60. The Spanish crown once had a magnificent pearl, which was likewise named huerfana or sola, and perished at the burning of the palace in 1734. A diamond mounted by itself is in French solitaire. But a deeper, a mythical meaning becomes apparent, which Haupt in his Zeitschr. 7, 278 disputes. Pupillus means first a little one, a boy under age, a ward, and then acquires the sense of orphan. Pupilla and korh signify a girl and the pupil of the eye, in which a child's image is supposed to be seen (p. 1080). Now as Völundr fashions the iarknasteinn of the eyes of slain children, the stone might be called either pupilla or pupillus, and so agree with our 'orphanus,' thus erchanstein comes to be 'weise.' Of Thiassi's eyes were made shining stars, all stars are gems of the sky; from this the transition to the sparkling stone was easy enough. Heinr. von Krolewiz, describing the sky as a house, again brings the eyes into connection with the orphan, ll. 1194. 1203-16 (see Suppl.).

The pearl, already in dreams a prognostic of the tear, is made in the myth to spring out of Venus's tear, as Freyja's tears turned into drops of gold (p. 1194); (17) and Wäinämöinen's tears fall into the sea as pearls, Kalew. rune 22. The pearl then is either metal or stone. Our ancestors regarded it as a stone found in the sea, hence eorcanstân too may have meant pearl, and even the Latin name unio approaches that notion of the incomparable orphan: 'in tantum ut nulli duo reperiantur indiscreti, unde nomen unionum Romanae imposuere deliciae,' Pliny 9, 35 [56]. 'ideo uniones quia nunquam duo simul reperiantur,' Isid. or. 16, 10. Pliny goes on: 'nam id (nomen unionum) apud Graecos non est, ne apud barbaros quidem inventores ejus aliud quam margaritae.' If margarita, margarithj was the word commonly used by barbarian pearl-fishers, the Greeks and Romans may have this time borrowed a word from Teutonic races, in whose language the OHG. marigreoz, MHG. mergriez, OS. merigriota, AS. meregreot, meregrot is perfectly intelligible, meaning grit or pebble of the sea. It is true we now find the Goth. markreitus, 1 Tim. 2, 9, imitated from margarithj, and that with consonant-change; and to correspond to this the OHG. should have been marchrîz. Either OHG., OS. and AS. all strove to accommodate the foreign word to our idiom (which usually happens in one dialect, not in three at once), or the Goth had no 'marigriuts' in his own language, or did not choose to write it, and so imitated the outlandish term, which is now stowed away in our female name Gret-chen. The OHG. perala, berala, AS. pearl, is appar. from beryllus, and again transfers the notion of gemmula to the growth in the shellfish. We might also put by the side of margarita the Skr. marakata, though that signifies, and is directly allied to, smaragdoj, maragdoj (emerald).

As erchanstein sprang out of the human eye, and the pearl out of the oyster, the medieval fancy seems to have been excited by some other precious stones which grew in or out of animals. What Marbod cap. 24 tells of the lyncurius may be read at greater length in Rudlieb 3, 101-127: these brilliant lynx-stones likewise befit the finger-ring of the queen, the crown of the king. Some legends speak of stones of power engendered in the head of the cock, the adder, the toad. Inside the body of a castrated cock of three years grows the alectorius, Marbod cap. 3: 'Invictum reddit lapis hic quemcunque gerentem, Extinguitque sitim patientis in ore receptus.' The MHG. poem fixes the capon's age at seven, Albertus at nine years. But a poem in the Vienna Cod. 428 no. 136 (Hahn's Stricker p. 48) names the snake-stone as the right one to bestow victory:

ich hœre von den steinen sagen,

die natern und kroten tragen (adders and toads bear),

daz grôze tugend dar an lige (great virtue therein lies),

swer si habe, der gesige (who has them, conquers);

mohten daz sigesteine wesen (if these be victory-stones),

sô solt ein wurm vil wol genesen,

der's in sînem lîbe trüege,

daz in nieman erslüege
(the reptile itself ought to live long, and never get killed); and the cock-stone as that which allays thirst:

man sagt von hanensteinen,

swer ir in munt nem' einen,

daz er guot vür den durst im sî.

The sacred snake, the adder, who wears crowns of gold (p. 686) and jewels (Gesta Rom. ed. Keller pp. 68. 152), seems to have a better right to the stone of victory than the cock. Albertus mentions a stone borax, which the toad wears on its head, but he says nothing about its procuring victory: 'borax lapis est, qui ita dicitur a bufone, quod in capite ipsum portat,' Otnit, Mone 557-8. In Ettm. p. 91 the toad is characterized as Hebrew:

ez ist ûz dem garten ein Abrahemsche krot (conf. p. 1241),

swenne diu gewehset, sie bringet einen stein

daz diu sunne ûf erden niht bezzers überschein.
The Dresden poem says more explicitly, that the stone grows on him, and is of all stones the highest. The Pentameron 4, 1 says, the preta de lo gallo grows in the cock's head, and is a wishing-stone, by which you can obtain anything. The Oriental fable of the three lessons taught by the captive bird (Reinh. cclxxxi. Ls. 2, 655) alludes to such a stone growing in the heart or crop of a lark or nightingale. The daughter of Sigurðr grikr steals the stone of victory out of his pocket while he sleeps, and gives it to Dietleib (Vilk. s. cap. 96-7); such a one had king Nidung too (cap. 25), but neither passage specifies the kind of stone. Vintler. (Sup. G, 1. 89) does not describe his sigelstein, but we find elsewhere that it could artificially, and in secret, be blown like glass, cast like metal; Seifr. Helbl. 4, 124 says of conspirators: 'ze samen si dô sâzen, sam (as if) sie einen sigstein bliesen'; and Mich. Behaim 22, 11: 'gar taugenlichen vor dem rat zusamen giengen fru und spat, pis sy gussen ain sigelstain.' Acc. to Hagen's Cölner chron. 1003 the stone wherewith to conquer means the diamond. When the poets tell of finger rings that lend victory, that make invisible (e.g. Troj. 9198), their power always comes of the stone set in them. Marbod cap. 27 on gagathromeus: 'Quem qui gestarit dux pugnaturus in hostem, Hostem depulsum terraque marique fugabit' (see Suppl.).

The ceraunius (kerauniaj) that falls from heaven is mentioned by Marbod cap. 28: 'Qui caste gerit hunc, a fulmine non ferietur, Nec domus aut villae quibus affuerit lapis ille.' What he adds: 'Crystallo similem Germania mittere fertur, Coeruleo tamen infectum rutiloque colore' is derived from Pliny 37, 8, 51: 'est inter candidas et quae ceraunia vocatur, fulgorem siderum rapiens, ipsa crystallina, splendoris coerulei, in Germania nascens,' though the received text has Carmania. There can be no question about the thunderstone being German (p. 179); and Miölnir, like the hein (p. 903n.) that Oðinn hurled, or that which lodged in Thôr's head (p. 375), is sure to have been hallowed above all stones. Miölnir sounds remarkably like the Slavic names for lightning, molniya, munya; this last the Servian songs personify into Munya, and represent as sister to Thunder (Grom), and bride of the Moon (Mièsets, masc., Vuk 1, 151-4 new ed.), which jumps with out personification of Hammer (p. 181. 999). So much the more is Molniya identical with Miölnir. The Romans too must have regarded the thunderbolt, silex, as a 'Jovis lapis': Lapidem silicem tenebant juraturi per Jovem, haec verba dicentes, 'Si sciens fallo, tum me Dispiter, salva urbe arceque, bonis ejiciat, ut ego hunc lapidem!' Those about to take an oath fetched out of the temple of Juppiter Feretrius a staff and 'lapidem silicem quo foedus ferirent,' exactly as covenants were hallowed by Thôr's hammer. Acc. to Livy 1, 24, when a swine was sacrificed, it was struck with this stone: 'Tu illo die, Jupiter, populum Romanum sic ferito, ut ego hunc porcum hic hodie feriam, tantoque magis ferito, quanto magis potes pollesque': id ubi dixit, porcum saxo silice percussit. This is like our malediction, 'Hammer strike thee!' The Finns in like manner called the thunderbolt Ukonkivi, stone of Ukko the progenitor; the Indians hîra, hîraka, Indra's thunderstone (Pott's Etym. for. 2, 421) or vajra, which means at once thunderbolt and diamond. As this makes it partake the nature of the brightest of stones, our fathers saw in it the hard flint, the Romans the silex; myth and superstition alike accord to it the noblest powers: 'malleum aut silicem aërium, ubi puerpera decumbit, obvolvunt candido linteo contra infestationem fearum, albarum feminarum, strygum, lamiarum,' Gisb. Voetii sel. disput. theol., Ultraj. 1651. 3, 121 (see Suppl.).

As there is supposed to be a philosopher's stone (lapis sapientum), that imparts wisdom, or the art of making gold and prolonging life (ôska-steinn, wishing-stone, p. 144), Scandinavia also had its legend of the lîf-steinn. In Kormakssaga cap. 12, p. 116-8 Bersi wears one on his neck, which brings him succour in swimming (see Suppl.).

Only large stones, such as mountains and rocks, are named after gods, heroes or giants, who dwell upon them, or have hurled them; rarely particular species of stone, at all events no healing ones. A certain slate indeed was called giant's bread, jyvrikling (p. 546), a tufa näckebröd (p. 489), a coal-stone Surtarbrandr (p. 809).




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