Chapter 38

About the elvish mare and nightmare, what was said on p. 464-5 is by no means all: they ride not only men but horses, whose manes in the morning are found dripping with sweat and tangled, conf. Svantevit's horse p. 662. Cannegieter in Epistola de ara ad Noviomagum reperta p. 25 says: 'Abigunt eas nymphas (matres deas, mairas) hodie rustici osse capitis equini tectis injecto, cujusmodi ossa per has terras in rusticorum villis crebra est animadvertere (conf. p. 660). Nocte autem ad concubia equitare creduntur, et equos fatigare ad longinqua itinera. Illud namque datum deabus illis magisque, si rusticorum fabulis credimus, ut manentes loca peregrina adeant, in equis manentibus, qui tamen viae labores sudore testantur. Nuper confabulatus mecum villicus aegerrime ferebat equos suos proxima nocte exagitatos, defluente per corpora sudore; causam cum quaererem, respondit iratus, mairam nocturnam equitasse.' To this maira nocturna, be it akin to matrona (p. 417) or even to moira, one might be tempted to trace our nachtmar, nightmare, had we not a better derivation at hand. To the OHG. marah (equus), AS. mear, ON. marr, seems to correspond the AS. fem. meare (surely a better spelling than mære), ON. mara. True, the OHG. meriha means only equa, not ephialtes, and we now distinguish mähre from mahr; on the other hand, in ON. it is to the fem. mara that the demonic sense attaches, and so early as in the Yngl. saga cap. 16 king Vanlandi is trodden to death in his sleep by a mara: 'mara trað hann'; when his people rush to his aid, 'trað hun fôtleggina,' and at last 'kafdi hun höfuðit, svâ at þar dô hann.' The image then seems to waver between the ridden beast and the riding trampling one, just as the devil sometimes rides men, sometimes as a horse takes them on his back. Like the mara, we saw p. 278 that the Stempe treads. Wolf (nos. 249-254) gives some good mare-stories from the Netherlands; I lay special stress on a spell song he has against the sprite, p. 689:

O maer, gy lelyk dier (ye loathly beast),

komt toch dezen nacht niet wêer (again)!

alle waters zult gy waeyen (shall ye wade),

alle boomen zult gy blaeyen (disleaf),

alle spieren gerst (spikes of barley) zult gy tellen,

komt my toch dezen nacht niet kwellen!
With this take a Henneberg spell in Haupt's Zeitschr. 3, 360:

Das wallala alle berge durchtra (-trab, trot),

alle wasser durchbåt (-bade, bathe),

alle bletlich åblåt,

onnerdesse wörd's tak (until it be day)!
Both refer to the spirit's nightly jaunt, it trots over all the hills, wades (or bathes) through the waters, strips the trees, counts the corn-stalks, until the break of day; then on the maerentakken (mistletoes?) the mare is said to rest. The name 'wallala' may come from wallen, wadeln, or be a cry of wail (Gramm. 3, 293), for the night-spirits (Sup. I, 878) appear as wailing-mothers (p. 432-3, and Schm. 4, 54). ------ A third spell I take from Schreiber's Tagb. 1839. p. 321: 'Drude's-head, I forbid thee my house and yard, I forbid thee my bedstead, that not over me thou trostest (trottest? treadest?); trost to some other house, till over all hills and waters thou climbest, and all the hedge-sticks ehlest (zehlest, tellest?)! Then comes dear day into my house again.' Drute is the same thing as mahre, as drutenzopf (plica) is also called marenzopf, alpzopf, and drutenfuss maerenvoet. I think the most important point is, that the sprite is shy of daylight, and the dawn scares it away (p. 466 n.); the Alvismâl closes exactly like these spells: 'nu scînn sunna î sali'; conf. 'dagr er nû,' Sæm. 145b. I hope the spell may yet turn up in other places, and in a purer form.

Healing-spells are fond of beginning with something in the narrative way, some transaction from which the remedy derives its force; and it is here especially that we find heathen beings left high and dry. When a spell opens with 'Sprach jungfrau Hille, blut stand stille!' who can fail at once to recognise the old valkyr Hilda, her that can make blood flow and stanch it again? And even when the opening words are 'Mary fared afield' or 'Christ he crossed the land'; when a charm against finger-worm says 'God the Father afield did ride, stoutly the hoe he plied, stubbed up the worms outright, one was black, another white, the third worm it was red; here lie the worms all dead'; it is clear that such formulas could not have originated in christian times, but might well survive among the people, who had merely to insert new sacred names. The heathen incident that would account for the obscure or senseless words, is mostly hidden from us. On p. 1232-3 'Jesus' and 'the Lord' have taken the place of Wuotan. 'Christus in petra sedebat, et virgam manu tenebat,' Mone's Anz. 7, 609; or again, 'Job went over land, had his staff in hand.' When 'Jesus and Peter wandering go from country to country to and fro,' it is evidently the same widely diffused notion as at p. 337; but it is not always so easy to hit upon the heathen names that lie at the bottom. A favourite way is to start with three personages: as the idisî fall into three sets (p. 1231), so the three Marys look out (p. 416), like three norns or three fays. 'Three brothers went afield' (Keisersb. ameis 50a; 'three blessed br.,' Spell XXXI.). 'Three virgins come down from heaven to earth, the one Blut-gülpe, the next Blut-stülpe, the third Blut-stehe-still,' Märk. forsch. 1, 262; the last is the maid Hilda named alone in the other spell. I will only add from Roth. de nominibus vet. Germanorum medic., Helmst. 1735. p. 139: 'Juvat subnectere incantationis formulam, qua in Marchia Brandenb. atque adjacentibus regionibus in ophthalmia curanda uti solent anus decrepitae, insanos ritus deperientes, quam quidem factis variis gesticulationibus ac digitis ante dolentes oculos ter decussatim motis, rauco susurramine semel atque iterum emutire consuescunt, ita autem habent: Ibant aliquando tres puellae in via virente, prima noverat remedium aliquod contra suffusionem oculorum, altera noverat remedium aliquod contra albuginem, et tertia profecto contra inflammationem, eaeque sanabant una ratione omnia, in nomine Patris, Filii et Spiritus sanct, Amen' (see Suppl.).

Against particular diseases the remedies are pitted as though in mortal strife: 'de ros un de wied, de stan in strid, de ros verswann, de wied gewann'; or 'de flecht (scrofula) un de wied, de krakeelten sik, de wied de gewünn, un de flecht verswünn,' Meckl. jahrb. 5, 102-3; or again, 'de flockasch (flugasche) un de flechte, de flogen wol over dat wilde meer; de flockasch de kam wedder, de flechte nimmermehr,' Sup. I, 811 (see Suppl.).

Spells for the wishing-rod, when it is to strike treasure or a vein of metal, see p. 975. A formula used in looking for a clay-pit, in whose earth are to be wrapt up the written slips of paper which shall clear up a doubtful matter, in Haupt's Zeitschr. 3, 190.

In addresses to animals whose encounter is prophetic, whose ways are mysterious, we may fairly recognise antique spells, though their language has undergone a great deal of distortion; such are the rhymes to the swan, p. 429, the stork 672, cuckoo 676, Martin's bird 1130, Mary's chafer 695, and others, whose essential identity among the most various branches of our race is an interesting feature.

In Scandinavia, where the reign of heathenism lasted longest, ought to be found the greatest number of such spells, either in writing or in the mouths of the people; and from them we could gather most distinctly the connexion, both of the words and of their import, with heathen notions. The spell by which Grôa was about to disengage the stone from Thôr's head, p. 375, is not preserved in the Edda, but spells quite similar may have been still muttered over men and beasts in recent times. Much to be desired is the speedy publication of a collection set on foot by L. F. Rääf in Sweden, and containing over 2000 articles, of which a preliminary notice appeared in the monthly Mimer (Ups. 1838-40) pp. 271-7. Among these spells now reduced to writing, isolated runes can here and there be recognised even yet, and in some cases their use is enjoined; thus, on the mode of compelling a thief to restore stolen goods on pain of losing his eye, we find the following prescription: Go at sunset on Sunday evening to a place that lies high, bearing a bucketful of water, cut the rune S, and charge the thief within a certain time to bring back what he has stolen, or lose his right eye. The rune S apparently refers to Sunday and sunset, perhaps to syn (sight, eye); does it also in connexion with the water-vessel point to the word så (situla)? Most likely the water was poured out, and ran down the hill (see Suppl.).