1970 Journal of
American Folklore
American Folklore Society
"... to his search for the
presence of the divine twins in Germanic mythology, Ward
presents the conclusions of some of the scholars who
have made the same search, among others, Schneider,
Magnus Olsen, Rydberg, Naumann, and Dumezil"
1971 Richard Mercer Dorson
Peasant Customs and Savage Myths:
Selections from the British ..., Volume 1
“As is well known, Rydberg has
established some striking points of contact between the
mythic ideas of Scandinavia and those of Iran.”
1972 Gabriel Turville-Petre
Nine Norse Studies
"V. Rydberg, Undersokningar i
germansk mythologi (1886-9), 11 100 ff. The same view
has been expressed in another form by G. Dumezil ..."
1973 Hans O. Granlid
Vår Dröm är Frihet:
['Our Dream of Freedom']
"Till ariskt blod, det renaste och
äldsta, till svensk jag vigdes av en vänlig norna.
... Att Rydbergs "ariska" idéer icke innebar någon sorts
fientlighet mot judarna bör särskilt understrykas.
Tvärtom: han verkade för denna minoritets rättigheter,
hade flera judiska vänner och sökte också poetiskt
gestalta sin sympati (bland hans manuskript finns utkast
till en dikt om folket med de mörka ögonen, dvs..."
[
"To Aryan blood the purest and the oldest,
to Swedish was I wed by a friendly norn "
....That Rydberg's 'Aryan' ideal did not contain
anything hostile toward Jews should be particularly
underscored. Quite the opposite: He worked for this
minority's rights, had many Jewish friends, and also
sought to poetically figure their sympathies (among his
manuscripts is found the outline of a poem of the
'people with the dark eyes," etc.)]
1973 Elias
Bredsdorff
Scandinavica
"The meticulous bibliographical
references throughout the volume direct the reader to
other works by Rydberg scholars, and the extracts can
lead on to further reading where we may pursue
individual preferences. I am sure all institutions of
Scandinavian study will welcome this book, for to leaf
through the dusty old Rydberg tomes currently to be
found on our library shelves is not an appealing
occupation. With regard to the slimmer volume,...
1973
Völuspá, edited by Sigurður
Nordal.
Translated by B.S. Benedikt and
John McKinnell
Saga Book of the Viking Society for Northern Research
Volume 18
"Bang's essay attracted great
attention and many good scholars agreed with him. Some
have followed and his footsteps and traced the material
of Norse mythology back to southern European and
Christian writings of the Roman Empire and later years.
The most
prominent of these was Bugge, especially in his first
volume of the Studier over de nordiske Gude- og
Heltesagns Oprindelse. Bugge's views have been
considered extreme by many (though he did not lack
followers, especially in the early days) and the time of
his greatest influence is now over. But there is always
much to be learned from his works, even for those who
differ from his basic principles. And Bugge is moderate
in comparison with the German mythologist E. H. Meyer,
who edited Völuspá with a commentary in 1889 and traced
all its matter to mediaeval Christian writings. For in
this large book (300 pages) I have not found a single
observation which I thought worth mentioning in my
commentary. It is from beginning to end a scholarly
fable by a man whose learning had made him mad.
Many came forward to oppose this
line of research. Victor Rydberg attacked Bang, while
Bugge defended him, and this resulted in Rydberg's
producing his great work Undersökningar i
Germanisk Mytologi. This is written with great learning
and eloquence. Its chief fault is that the author makes
it clear neither to himself nor to his reader where the
learning stops and the eloquence begins."
1974 John Strong Perry Tatlock
The Legendary History of Britain:
Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia.
"Dr. Viktor Rydberg showed in 1881
beyond much doubt that the passage is an adaptation from
Lucan's Pharsalia; his articles Astrologien och Merlin
have been ignored by almost everyone (Faral, Chambers,
Rupert Taylor), ..."
1974 Elias Bredsdorff
Scandinavica
"... published two books on Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895),
major Swedish poet and thinker. The larger of the two
books "Vir drom ar frihet", is an extremely useful
compilation and an invaluable reference book for
students and teachers ... "
1974 Sir
Israel Gollancz
Hamlet in Iceland:
Being the Icelandic Romantic Ambales Saga - Page xv
[Reprinted from 1898]
"Rydberg, bearing in mind the
connection of the myth concerning the cosmic
Grotti-Mill ... In the poem found in the Elder Edda,
the giant tells Odin that countless ages ere the
earth was shapen, Bergelmer was born : " the first
thing I remember is when he "var lúðr um lagiðr."
The meaning, according to Rydberg, was not clear."
1975 Brian Johnston
The Ibsen Cycle: the Design of the Plays from
Pillars of Society
"(The claim of a distant
Trojan heritage is, of course, a commonplace in
European legends of many races and countries.)
Zoroaster, Rydberg demonstrated at length, is
connected in mythology with the Scandinavian
Odin. ..."
1976 Hans-Peter Neuman
“Viktor Rydbergs ‘Undersökningar i Germanisk
Mythologi’
Studien zur dänischen und schwedischen Literatur
des 19. Jahrhunderts, p. 185 ff.
[Partially Translated by
Calvin Bentley (c) 1999]
Introduction
Viktor Rydberg’s
far-reaching interests in the area of
Nordic-Germanic antiquity have experienced time
as well as ideologically-related defeat. As
poet, he reflected Old Norse themes and mirrored
Gothic ideology repeatedely in prose and poetry:
first superficially in the original form of
Singoalla (1857) and more distinctly in the
novel of antiquity, Vapensmeden (the
Weapon-smith, 1891); but above all in the poem
Snöfrid (1876) in the lyrical Voluspá
paraphrases Baldersbålet (1876) and Värdträdet
(1888) and finally as topical and socially
critical variation of the Eddic Grottosöngr in
Den nya Grottesängen (1891). None rose above
time or free of ideology, and certainly in the
interpretation of literary works. Only
been cited incidentally until now, Rydberg’s
efforts, almost forgotten today, in the
studies of antiquity as a journalist, cultural
writer and researcher are certainly thematic.
From 1863, he published in various journals a
series of rune studies; he agitated in the 70s
for “Nordisk nyväckelse” (‘Nordic reawakening’)
and attention to puristic care of language, then
turned to Germanic mythology and hero-saga
research on very independent paths for a full
decade. Out of an unfettered discussion in 1879
concerning the age and origin of the Völuspá by
Norwegians A.C. Bang and Sophus Bugge there
grew, after long years of preparatory work, the
Undersökningar and in connection with that,
Fädernas Gudasaga (‘Our Fathers’ Godsaga’);
again dealing with the complex of hero-saga,
myth and runes, the late academic paper Om
Hjältesagan å Rökstenen (1893), counted as
Rydberg’s last learned effort. While the
tangible Old Norse themes were again and again
areas of interpretation in novels and poetry,
area of the mythology of antiquity remained far
outside of the range of vision of Rydberg’s
research. If comprehensive Swedish literature
histories mention the Undersökningar, it is only
on the margins and then show themselves clearly
incapable of a judgment. Already soon after the
turn of the century, this most comprehensive
mythological presentation, which at that time
appeared in Nordic language is passed over in
favor of religion-oriented discussion. Not until
40 years after Rydberg’s death do the
Undersökningar experience, as it were,
incidentally, a surprising new evaluation in the
first edition of Jan De Vries’ Altgermanischen
Religiongeschichte.
[fn 5: J. De Vries,
Altgermanischen Religionsgeschichte, Vol. 1,
Berlin/Liepzig 1935, p. 93: "...V. Rydberg, der
mit seinen glänzenden Kombinationen der kritisch
orientierten Forschung seiner Zeitgenossen wenig
zusagte, aber heute die ihm trotz unstreitigen
Mängeln gebürende Achtung weidergewinnt."] If
subsequently the attempt is undertaken to closer
determine the point of view in the history
of ideas of Rydberg’s mythological
investigations, it would be necessary to
inquire at the same time what circumstances
impeded previous adequate assessment and
intergration into the pages of of Swedish
literary history and moreover, which factors in
the history of science, have led to their recent
higher evaluation. I. The
Undersökningar i germanisk mythologi, two
voluminous eight-fold editions with a total of
1400 pages, appeared between a three year
interval in 1886 and 1889 in Stockholm.
Preliminary mythological sketches stand in
direct connection with this composition and,
Undersöklningar is intended to intention of
deliver the first argument and evidence for
understanding the work. In 1882 for the first
time, Rydberg revealed his plan for “a
mythological epic from the Germanic……” [and]
describes its character as a continous
narrative. The artistic intention of a
preliminary draft proved to forego
scientic reflection and foundation. It appeared
in 1884 under the title Segersvärdet … in Ny
Svensk Tidskrift.” And almost simulatneously in
Danish translation in the Copenhagen
“Morganbladet”. Shortly thereafter followed a
Danish book edition. This contained in
connection a summary prospectus (‘Til
Bevisfordsen”) of the narratively
demonstrated epic connection of Germanic
mythology. The concept of a scientifically
satisfactory that is to say,a thorough and
methodically supported elucidation of the
postulated epic cycle, which in this work is
only partly laid out, led Rydberg in
Undersökningar all the end. This followed after
he dealt with the same theme in a series of
lectures at Stockholm’s Högskola. Segersvärdet,
on the other hand, formed the scheme for the
starting artistic dimension of which was validly
demonstrated by Gustaf Fröding....
—Lacuna—
V.
"If one inquires into the
deeper causes that led to the demonstrated
negative reception of Undersökningar, the answer
lies for one thing in Rydberg's self-willed
interpretative process, for another it's based
on his out-of-date orientation in the history of
ideas. This last may be somewhat more exactly
clarified by Rydberg's fixed position in the
history of reseach of mythology. With his
epoch-making Deutsche Mythologie of 1835, Jacob
Grimm had not only prepared the material for
continuing research, but at the same time
provided methodological impetus for two of the
most important mythological directions of the
19th century: for historical mythology which
possessed its outstanding proponent in Karl
Müllenhoff, and for comparitive mythology. As
Grimm was convinced that the mythology of
different Germanic branches would have
originally formed one unit, so the comparative
school went essentially farther in that it
brought in the results of comparative philology
into the area of religion and sought to open
up a prehistoric Indo-European primitive
religion using the comparison of Indian,
Germanic, and Greek materials. Innovators in
this direction were Adalbert Kuhn and the
German-Englishman Max Müller. Both tied together
the comparative method, moreover, with a
nature-myth interpretation of primal religious
pheneomena, for which Karl Simrock's
sun-mythology had already paved the way. Max
Müller believed he recognized myth producing
elements in dawn and dusk. Adalbert Kuhn in his
work, Die Herabkunft des Feurers und des
Göttertranks ('The Descent of Fire and the
Nectar of the Gods,' 1859) related greater
mythological concept-complexes to meteorological
phenomena, such as air, wind, storm, and cloud
formations. Based on this another comparative
mythologist Wilhelm Schwartz created a downright
absurd system of nature-mythology in which
almost every manifestation of weather possessed
its own mythology. However, Schwartz siezed the
folkloric suggestions of the Brothers Grimm and
seperated the lower from the higher mythology,
and therein lies his merit. This folkloric
direction was taken further by Wilhelm
Mannhardt, who elaborated agricultural rites,
especially in his Wald- und Feldkulten ('Forest-
and Field Cult,' 1875-77). In the decades around
1900, the folkloric-nature-mythology way of
consideration was connected with ethnological
interpretations, which had become the direction
of Anglo-Saxon research, and comparative
Indo-European mythology was given up in favor of
pure analysis. One of the leading
representatives of
folkloric-ethnological-nature-mythology, which
would prove to be a wrong direction and which
was already classified deprecatingly by Rydberg
as 'väderleksmythologi' ('weather-mythology') or
'folklore-skolan' ('the folklore-school') [ii,
p. 429f], is the aforementioned Elard Hugo
Mayer. Eugen Mogk and others turned to the
so-called lower mythology and led it back to the
late folkloric tradition; the system of gods was
thereby interpreted as the further development
of honoring demons. Near to the folkloric-nature
mythological interpretation around the end of
the century there grew a branch of the
historical philological research. However, the
beginnings of this by Karl Müllenhoff, who also
saw mythical conceptions mirrored in the epic
traditions of the Germans, above all in Germany,
were not pursued further.
Viktor Rydberg went his
own way. In a period of scholarship in which the
folkloric-nature mythological school was
influential, rationistic-analytical methods and
critical history ruled the field, and the Nordic
myths were generally looked upon as the late
product of the Viking times, he tried, under the
influence of the ideal of 'nordisk nyväckelse'
('Nordic reawkening') to reconstruct a high
ancient general Germanic system of myths that
would have the origin of its epic-manifested
seed in the Indo-Germanic time. He harked back
not only to the impetus of the Grimms, but at
the same time came nearer to the comparative
Indo-European mythology of Adalbert Kuhn and Max
Müller, which had been rejected in the
meantime, without really repeating their
nature-mythological errors. To the contrary
Rydberg clearly defined the folkloric
interpretation pyschologically for the first
time and from the nature-myth point of view, and
at the same time in his abstract
Till Mythologiens Methodik (II, pp.
427-482), he anticipated views that only in more
recent times have succedded again in being of
importance.
Rydberg draws a sharp line
between mythogony and actual mythology. The
mythogony, which he influenced in the
folkloric-nature mythological direction, as part
of its discipline of ethnography or
folk-psychology must investigate the general
human conditions for the genisis of myth.
Mythology, on the other hand, in a narrower
sense has to lead the task of examine the
existing complex of myths as the end-product of
a cultural development with all its social,
religious, and ethnic implications as well as to
examine the possible epic connections braching
out from one language, and lastly an original
Indo-European form. With the weaknesses of
nature-mythology in his sights, Rydberg sums up
his theory:
"The practitioners of
meteorological 'mythology' have never seriously
understood that myths, as they already existed
in prehistoric times and as they exist in the
oldest literature, are godsagas. They are epic
products, stories of the gods’ circumstances of
kinship, their characteristic eccentricities,
their sphere of activities, their battles to
protect the world from demons, their
intervention in the fates of the race of men
whom they have created and protect, their
relations with the patriarchs, etc. For this
reason, it never occurred to them to observe the
vast amount of evidence that exists in
Indo-European myths for an epic connection among
them and to investigate how far this connection
extends." (Vol. II, p. 431)
Rydberg himself understood
that the Undersökningar could not stand against
either mythologhical dogma, which he himself
opposed, or the critical history-of-philology
school. In a letter that mentions a plan for a
German edition, he stated, with resigned
insight, that the reigning doctrine in Germany:
"The mythological school
that has been dominate in Germany from 1840
until now, is nonplussed by the standpoint that
it would seal its own fate if it accepted my
work in its entirety. What has surprised me is
that they have not sought to strangle my work in
its infancy, instead of recommending many of its
conclusions’ important details."
Today, Since the Nature-mythology that dominated
around 1900 is scarely mentioned any more,
ethnological interpretations have only proven
themselves in a few areas of religious
phenomenology, and a hyper-critical historican
appears to be overcome, Rydberg's work must be
judged differently.
Socialogical and
structural research has opened a new view of the
genetic kinship of the Indo-European religions,
and the ground-laying works of the French man
Georges Dumezil above all led to the
reinvigoration of the comparative Indo-European
mythology. It is therefore not astounding that
the late appreciation that Rydberg, as its last
and at the same time independent advocate,
expreiencs via Jan de Vries (1935) collapses
with the naming of Dumezil as the founder
of the new comparative studies. In a
documentation of the history of mythological
research published in 1961, de Vries points out
a new not only Rydberg's contribution, but that
he sees himself in agreement with the leading
idea of the Swedish "poet-reseracher" who
clearly enuciated what today may be presumably
seen as having become a certianty:
"a large part of the myths
of the Germanic tradition —and that is to say
basically the Old Norse tradition—must be set
back in a time when the undivided
Proto-Indo-European people themselves created
the vessel of their worldview in myths.”
But de Vries did not leave
it at a verbal rehabilitation. In the second
edition of Altgermanischen Religionsgeschichte,
he puts forth conclusions that deal completely
with Rydberg's many-faceted, continuingly
detailed observations. So this, among other
things validates the Balder myth, the myths
dealing with the primal giant Mimir, the
egnimatic figure of the gods' servant Thjalfi.
One may presume that further stimulus will
emanate from the Undersökningar despite its
material shortcomings, its methodically
deficient arrangement, and its time-conditional
ideological connections."
1977 Giorgio de Santillana
and Hertha von Dechend
Hamlet's Mill
Read the full text of
Hamlet's Mill
HERE
This groundbreaking text
on archaeo-astronomy makes many favorable
references to Rydberg and
his theories of epic mythology and a cosmic mill
p. 92 Rydberg renders the
words as "laid on a mill," and understands them
as "laid under a millstone." Accordingly, he
explains Snaebjorn's lidmeldr, which the great
mill grinds, as "limb grist." [n6 V. Rydberg,
Teutonic Mythology (1907), p. 575.]. As will
appear later, there is a different
interpretation to propose. p. 139
It was not a foreign idea
to the ancients that the mills of the gods grind
slowly, and that the result is usually pain.
Thus the image travels far
and wide by many channels, reaches the North by
way of Celtic-Scandinavian transmission and
appears in Snaebjorn's account of his voyage of
discovery in the Arctic. There should be added
to those enigmatic lines of his what is known
now of the background in Scandinavian lore. The
nine grim goddesses who "once ground Amlodhi's
meal," working now that "host-cruel skerry
quern" beyond the edge of the world, are in
their turn only the agents of a shadowy
controlling power called Mundilfoeri, literally
"the mover of the handle" (appendix
# 15).
The word mundil, says
Rydberg, "is never used in the old Norse
literature about any other object than the sweep
or handle with which the movable millstone is
turned," [n3 V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology
(1907), pp. 581ff. Webster's New International
Dictionary, 2d ed., lists "mundle": A stick for
stirring. Obsolete except for dialectical use.
(We are indebted for this reference to Mrs. Jean
Whitnack.)] and he is backed by Vigfusson's
dictionary which says that "mundil" in
"Mundilfoeri" clearly refers to "the veering
round or revolution of the heavens."
The case is then
established. But there is an ambiguity here
which discloses further depths in the idea.
"'Moendull' comes from Sanskrit 'Manthati,'"
says Rydberg, "it means to swing, twist, bore
(from the root manth-, whence later Latin
mentula), which occurs in several passages in
the Rigveda. Its direct application always
refers to the production of fire by friction."
[n4 To term it "friction" is a nice way to shut
out dangerous terms: actually, the Sanskrit
radical math, manth means drilling in the strict
sense, i.e., it involves alternate motion (see
H. Grassmann, Worterbuch zum Rig-Veda [1955],
pp. 976f.) as we have it in the famous
Amritamanthana, the Churning of the Milky Ocean,
and this very quality of India's churn and fire
drill has had far-reaching influence on
cosmological conceptions.].
So it is, indeed. But
Rydberg, after establishing the etymology, has
not followed up the meaning. The locomotive
engineers and airplane pilots of today who
coined the term "joy stick" might have guessed.
For the Sanskrit Pramantha is the male fire
stick, or churn stick, which serves to make
fire. And Pramantha has turned into the Greeks'
Prometheus, a personage to whom it will be
necessary to come back frequently.
p. 155
But once before, it is
hinted, there has been a "world war" between
Aesir and Vanir, which was terminated by a
sharing of power. In a vision in which past and
future blend in a flash, Vala sees the outcome
and announces it to the "high and low children
of Heimdal," that is, to all men. She asks them
to open their eyes, to understand what the gods
had to know: the breaking of the peace, the
murder of Thjassi, Odin himself abetting the
crime and nailing Thjassi's eyes to heaven. With
this a curtain is lifted briefly over a phase of
the past. For Thjassi belongs to the powers that
preceded the Aesir. In Greek terms, the Titans
came before the gods. The main Vana or Titanic
powers (in Rydberg's thoughtful reconstruction)
are the three brothers, Thjassi/Volund,
Orvandil/Eigil, and Slagfin: the Maker, the
Archer, and the Musician. This finally locates
Orvandil the Archer, the father of Amlethus. He
is one of the three "sons of Ivalde," just as
their counterparts in the Finnish epic are the
"sons of Kaleva." [n11 Strange to say, the three
brothers, Volund, Eigil and Slagfin, are called
"synir Finnakonungs," i.e., "sons of a Finnish
king" (J. Grimm, TM, p. 380)], And Ivalde, like
Kaleva, is barely mentioned, never described, at
least not under the name Ivalde: there is a
glimpse at him under his other name, Wate. Like
Kaleva, he is a meaningful void. But all this is
of the past. The Sibyl's vision is projected
toward the onrushing end. True, Loke has been
chained in Hell since he brought about the death
of Balder, the great Fenrir wolf is still
fettered with chains, once cunningly devised by
Loke himself, and they are made up of such
unsubstantial things as the footfall of a cat,
the roots of a rock, the breath of a fish, the
spittle of a bird [n12 Again, strange to say,
this very kind of "un-substance"--including the
milk of Mother Eagle, and the tears of the
fledglings--had to be provided for by Tibetan
Bogda Gesser Khan, who also snared the sun.].
Now the powers of the
Abyss are beginning to rise, the world is coming
apart. At this point Heimdal comes to the fore.
He is the Warner of Asgard, the guardian of the
Bridge between heaven and earth, the "Whitest of
the Aesir," but his role, his freedom of action,
is severely limited. He has many gifts--he can
hear grass grow, he can see a hundred miles
away-but these powers seem to
p. 156
remain ineffectual. He
owns the Gjallarhorn, the great battle horn of
the gods; he is the only one able to sound it,
but he'll blow it only once, when he summons the
gods and heroes to Asgard to their last fight.
Nordic speculation down to
Richard Wagner has dwelt with gloomy
satisfaction on Ragnarok [n13 For the etymology
of ragnarok, see Cleasby- Vigfusson, An
Icelandic-English Dictionary, in which regin
(whence ragna) is defined as "the gods as the
makers and rulers of the universe"; rok as
"reason, ground, origin" or "a wonder, sign,
marvel"; and ragna rok as "the history of the
gods and the world, but especially with
reference to the last act, the last judgment."
The word rokr, a possible alternate to rok, is
defined as "the twilight. . . seldom of the
morning twilight," and "the mythological phrase,
ragna rokr, the twilight of gods, which occurs
in the prose Edda (by Snorri), and has since
been received into modern works, is no doubt
merely a corruption from rok, a word quite
different from rokr." Taking into consideration
that the whole war between the Pandavas and the
Kauravas, as told in the Mahabharata, takes
place in the "twilght" between Dvapara and Kali
Yuga, there is no cogent reason to dismiss
Snorri's ragna rokr as a "corruption." But then,
the experts also condemned Snorri's comparison
between Ragnarok and the Fall of Troy: the
logical outcome of their conviction that
"poetry" is some kind of creatio ex nihilo,
whence the one question never raised is whether
the poets might not be dealing with hard
scientific facts.], the Twilight of the Gods,
which will destroy the world. There is the
prediction in the Song of the Sibyl, and also in
Snorri's Gylfaginning: when the great dog Garm
barks in front of the Gnipa cave, when the
Fenrir wolf breaks his fetters and comes from
"the mouth of the river," [n14 Lokasenna 41; see
also V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology (1907), p.
563.] his jaws snatching from heaven to earth,
and is joined by the Midgard Serpent, then
Heimdal will blow the Gjallarhorn, the sound of
which reaches through all the worlds: the battle
is on. But it is written that the forces of
order will go down fighting to atone for the
initial wrong done by the gods. The world will
be lost, good and bad together. Naglfar, the
ship of the dead, built with the nail parings of
the living, will sail through the dark waters
and bring the enemy to the fray. Then, adds
Snorri:
The heavens are suddenly
rent in twain, and. out ride in shining
squadrons Muspel's sons, and Surt with his
flaming sword, at the head of the fylkings [15
Gylf. 51.].
p. 157
All-engulfing flames come
out with Surt "the Black," who kills Freyr, the
Lord of the Mill. Snorri makes Surt "Lord of
Gimle" and likewise the king of eternal bliss
"at the southern end of the sky." [n16 Gylf. 17;
cf.. R. B. Anderson, The Younger Edda. (1880),
p. 249. That Surt is Lord of Gimle is a
particularly important statement; it will not be
found in the current translations of Snorri, but
only in the Uppsala Code: "there are many good
abodes and many bad; best it is to be in Gimle
with Surt” (Rydberg, p. 651).]. He must be some
timeless force which brings destructive fire to
the world; but of this later.
Hitherto all has been
luridly and catastrophically and murkily
confused as it should be. But the character of
Heimdal raises a number of sharp questions. He
has appeared upon the scene as "the son of nine
mothers"; to be the son of several mothers is a
rare distinction even in mythology, and one
which Heimdal shares only with Agni in the
Rigveda [n17 RV 10.45.2 points to nine births,
or mothers; 1.141.2 tells of the seven mothers
of Agni's second birth. Most frequently,
however, Agni has three "mothers," corresponding
to his three birthplaces: in the sky, on the
earth, in the waters.] and with Agni's son
Skanda in the Mahabharata. Skanda (literally
"the jumping one" or "the hopping one") is the
planet Mars, also called Kartikeya, inasmuch as
he was borne by the Krittika, the Pleiades. The
Mahabharata [n18 Mbh. 9-44-46 (Roy trans. vol.
7, pp. 130-43). It should be emphasized, aloud
and strongly, that in Babylonian astronomy Mars
is the only planetary representative of the
Pleiades. See P. F. Gassmann, Planetarium
Babylonicum (1950), p. 279: "In der
Planetenvertretung kommt fur die Plejaden nur
Mars in Frage."] insists on six as the number of
the Pleiades as well as of the mothers of Skanda
and gives a very broad and wild description of
the birth and the installation of Kartikeya "by
the assembled gods. . . as their generalissimo,"
which is shattering, somehow, driving home how
little one understands as yet [n19 The least
which can be said, assuredly: Mars was
"installed" during a more or less close
conjunction of all planets; in Mbh. 945 (p. 133)
it is stressed that the powerful gods assembled
"all poured water upon Skanda, even as the gods
had poured water on the head of Varuna, the lord
of waters, for investing him with dominion." And
this "investiture" took place at the beginning
of the Krita Yuga. the Golden Age.].
The nine mothers of
Heimdal bring to mind inevitably the nine
goddesses who turn the mill. The suspicion is
not unfounded. Two of these "mothers," Gjalp and
Greip, seem to appear with changed
p. 158
names or generations as
Fenja and Menja [n20 For the names of these
mothers, see Hyndluljod 38; for Gjalp and Greip,
daughters of the giant Geirroed, see Snorri's
Skaldskaparmal 2, and Thorsdrapa, broadly
discussed by Rydberg (pp. 932-52), who
established Greip as the mother of the "Sons of
Ivalde." R. Much claims the identity of Geirroed
with Surt ("Der germanische Himmelsgott," in
Ablandlungen zur germanische Philologie [1898],
p. 221). The turning up of a plurality of
mothers in the ancient North, and in India (see
also J. Pokorny, "Ein neun-monatiges Jahr im
Keltischen," OLZ 21 [1918], pp. 130-33) might
induce the experts eventually to reopen the
trial of those perfectly nonsensical seven or
nine, even fourteen, "motherwombs" which haunt
the Babylonian account of the creation of man.
(Cf. E. Ebeling, Tod und Leben [1931], pp. ]
72-77; E. A. Speiser (trans.), "Akkadian Myths
and Epics," ANET, pp. 99f.; W. von Soden, Or.
26, pp. 309ff.)]. Rydberg claims Heimdal to be
the son of Mundilfoeri. The story is then
astronomical. Where does it lead? Thanks to the
clues provided by Jacob Grimm, Rydberg and O. S.
Reuter, and thanks to many hints hidden in the
Rigveda, Atharva Veda and at other unexpected
places, one can offer a probable conclusion:
Heimdal stands for the world axis, the skambha.
His head is the "measurer" (mjotudr) of the same
measures that the Sibyl claims to understand:
"Nine worlds I know, nine spaces of the
measure-tree which is beyond (fyr) the earth."
"Measure.-tree" is the translation of mjotvidr
[n21 O. S. Reuter, Germanische Himmelskunde
(1934), pp. 236, 319. As concerns mjotudr
(measurer) and its connection with Sanskrit
matar and with meter, mensar, etc., see Grimm,
TM, pp. 22, 1290. Reuter (p. 236) quotes Lex.
Poet. Boreale 408, where mjotudr = fate.] which
so-called poetic versions usually render as
"world tree." The word fyr appears here again;
it connotes priority; in this verse 2 of Voluspa
it is translated as "below" in most of the
cases. The question "who measures what?" would
require an extensive analysis; here, with no
need for so many details, it is important only
to learn that Heimdal is honored by a second
name, Hallinskidi (appenpix #16). This name is
said to mean a bent, bowed or slanted stake or
post. To be bent or inclined befits the world
axis and all that belongs to it, with the one
exception of the observer who stands exactly at
the terrestrial North Pole. Why not call it
"oblique" or slanting right away [n22 We have
more of this mythological species of oblique
posts or trees—e.g., the Rigvedic "sacrificial
post"—and even Bears are not afraid to inhabit
the one or the other. See F. G. Speck and J.
Moses, The Celestial Bear Comes Down to Earth:
The Bear Sacrifice Ceremony of the
Munsee-Mohican in Canada (1945).]?
p. 159
Whether bent or oblique,
Grimm rightly says that it is "worthy of remark
that Hallinskidi and Heimdal are quoted among
the names for the ram [n23 TM, p. 234. Rydberg
(p. 593) spells it: "In the old Norse Poetry
Vedr (wether, ram) Heimdal and the Heimdal
epithet hallinskidi, are synonymous."]. Heimdal
is the "watcher" of the much-trodden Bridge of
the gods which finally breaks down at Ragnarok;
his "head" measures the crossroads of ecliptic
and equator at the vernal equinox in Aries [n24
A. Ohlmarks, Heimdalls Horn und Odins Auge
(1937), p. 144, makes the god a he-goat. That
would not be bad, either, if he is right, since
Capella, alpha Aurigae, "capricious" all over,
whether male or female, has the name "asar
bardagi = Fight of the Aesir" (Reuter, p. 279).
Of Auriga-Erichthonios we shall hear more in the
future.], a constellation which is called "head"
also by Cleomedes [n25 Instead of "head"
(kephalos), Nonnos calls Aries mesomphalos,
"midnavel," of Olympus.], and countless
astromedical illustrations show the Ram ruling
the head (Pisces the feet). Accordingly, one
might say that the Sibyl addresses herself to
"the high and low children of Aries."
Recalling Rigvedic Agni,
son of seven to nine mothers like Heimdal, and
remembering what has been said of "fire" that it
means more understandable. Heimdal stands for
the equinoctial colure
which "accompanies" the
slowly turning, wholly abstract and invisible
axis along the surface of the sphere. It will
emerge presently that "axis" always means the
whole "frame" of a world-age, given by the
equinoctial and solstitial colures [n26 It
should be remarked, that Snorri's identification
(Gylf. 13) of the bridge Bifroest with the
rainbow made scholars rush to rescue a
definitely regular phenomenon from the hazardous
existence which is allotted to a rainbow; they
voted for the Milky Way instead. With this we
are not likely to agree. See A. Ohlmarks,
"Stellt die mythische Bifroest den Regenbogen
oder die Milchstrasse dar?" Medd. Lunds Astron.
Observ. (1941), ser. II, no. 110, and Reuter, p.
284, quoting additional literature.]. More
understandable also becomes another epithet of
Heimdal, namely, Vindler, of which Rydberg
states (p. 595): "The name is a subform of
vindill and comes from vinda, to twist or turn,
wind, to turn anything around rapidly. As the
epithet 'the turner' is given to that god who
brought friction-fire (bore-fire) to man, and
who is himself the personification of this fire,
then it must be synonymous with 'the borer.'"
p. 206
Certain Frisian noblemen
made a voyage past Norway up to the farthest
limits of the Arctic Ocean, got into a darkness
which the eyes can scarcely penetrate, were
exposed to a maelstroem which threatened to drag
them down to Chaos, but finally came quite
unexpectedly out of darkness and cold to an
island which, surrounded as by a wall of high
rocks, contains subterranean caverns, wherein
giants lie concealed. At the entrances of the
underground dwellings lay a great number of tubs
and vessels of gold and other metals which "to
mortals seem rare and valuable." As much as the
adventurers could carry of these treasures they
took with them and hastened to their ships. But
the giants, represented by great dogs, rushed
after them. One of the Frisians was overtaken
and torn into pieces before the eyes of the
others. The others succeeded, thanks to our Lord
and Saint Willehad, in getting safely on board
their ships.
[n4 V. Rydberg, Teutonic
Mythology (1907), p. 320.]
The Latin text (Rydberg,
p. 422) uses the classical familiar name of
Euripus. The Euripus, which has already come up
in the Phaedo, was really a channel between
Euboea and the mainland, in which the conflict
of tides reverses the current as much as seven
times a day, with ensuing dangerous
eddies-actually a case of standing waves rather
than a true whirl [n5 We meet the name again at
a rather unexpected place, in the Roman circus
or hippodrome, as we know from J. Laurentius
Lydus (De Mensibus 1.12.), who states that the
center of the circus was called Euripos; that in
the middle of the stadium was a pyramid,
belonging to the Sun; that by the Sun's pyramid
were three altars, of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and
below the pyramid, altars of Venus, Mercury and
the Moon, and that there were not more than
seven circuits (kykloi) around the pyramid,
because the planets were only seven. (See also
F. M. Cornford's chapter on the origin of the
Olympic games in J. Harrison's Themis (1962),
228; G. Higgins' Anacalypsis (1927), vol. 2, pp.
377ff.) This brings to mind (although not called
Euripus, obviously, but "the god's place of
skulls") the Central American Ball Court which
had a round hole in its center, termed by
Tezozomoc "the enigmatic significance of the
ball court," and from this hole a lake spread
out before Uitzilopochtli was born. See W.
Krickeberg, "Der mittelamerikanische
Ballspielplatz und seine religiose Symbolik,"
Paideuma 3 (1948). pp. 135ff., 155, 162.].
p. 207
And here the unstable
Euripus of the Ocean, which flows back to the
beginnings of its mysterious source, dragged
with irresistible force the unhappy sailors,
thinking by now only of death, towards Chaos.
This is said to be the maw of the abyss, that
unknown depth in which, it is understood, the
ebb and flow of the whole sea is absorbed and
then thrown up again, which is the cause of the
tide.
p. 208
...Snorri, who has
preserved the Song of Grotte for us, does not
actually name the whirlpool in it, but there is
only one at hand, namely the “Hvergelmer" in
Hel’s abode of the dead, from and to which all
waters find their way." [n8 Grimnisma126; cf.
Snorri, Gylf. 15.]. Says Rydberg:
It appears that the
mythology conceived Hvergelmer as a vast
reservoir, the mother fountain of all the waters
of the world. In the front rank are mentioned a
number of subterranean rivers which rise in
Hvergelmer, and seek their courses thence in
various directions. But the waters of earth and
heaven also come from this immense fountain, and
after completing their circuits they return
thither.
The myth about Hvergelmer
and its subterranean connection with the ocean
gave our ancestors the explanation of ebb and
flood tide. High up in the northern channels the
bottom of the ocean opened itself in a hollow
tunnel, which led down to the "kettle-roarer,"
"the one roaring in his basin" (hverr=kettle;
galm=Anglo-Saxon gealm= a roaring). When the
waters of the ocean poured through this tunnel
down into the Hades-well there was ebb-tide,
when it returned water from its superabundance
then was flood-tide.
Between the death-kingdom
and the ocean there was, therefore, one
connecting link, perhaps several. Most of the
people who drowned did not remain with Ran,
Aegir's wife, Ran, received them hospitably,
according to the Icelandic sagas of the middle
ages. She had a hall in the bottom of the sea,
where they were welcomed and offered . . . seat
and bed. Her realm was only an ante-chamber to
the realms of death.
[n9 Rydberg, pp. 414,
421f. Cf. the notions about the nun Saint
Gertrude, patron of travelers, particularly on
sea voyages, who acted also as patron saint of
inns "and finally it was claimed that she was
the hostess of a public house, where the souls
spent the first night after death" (M. Hako; Das
Wiesel in der europaischen Volksuberlieferung,
FFC 167 [1956], p. 119).].
There are several features
of the Phaedo here, but they will turn up again
in Gilgamesh. This is not to deny that
Hvergelmer, and other whirlpools, explain the
tides, as indicated previously. (Perhaps it will
be possible to find out what tides "mean" on the
celestial level.) But it is clear that the
Maelstrom as the cause of the tides does not
account for the surrounding features, not even
for the few mentioned by Rydberg—for instance,
the wife of the Sea-god Aegir who receives
kindly the souls of drowned seafarers in her
antechamber at the bottom of the sea—nor the
circumstance that the Frisian adventurers,
sucked into the Maelstrom, suddenly find
themselves on a bright island filled with gold,
where giants lie concealed in the mountain
caves.
p. 233-34
In the case of Yggdrasil,
the World Ash, Rydberg tried his hardest to
localize the three roots, to imagine and to draw
them.
Since he looked with
Steadfast determination into the interior of our
globe, the result was not overly convincing. One
of the roots is said to belong to the Asa in
heaven, and beneath it is the most sacred
fountain of Urd. The second is to be found in
the quarters of the frost-giants "where
Ginnungagap formerly was," and where the well of
Mimir now is. The third root belongs to
Niflheim, the realm of the dead, and under this
root is Hvergelmer" the Whirlpool (Gylf. 15) [n9
We are aware that either Grotte "should" have
three roots, or that Yggdrasil should be
uprooted, and that the Finns do not tell how the
maelstroem came into being. All of which can be
explained; we wish, however, to avoid dragging
more and more material into the case. Several
ages of the world have passed away, and they do
not perish all in the same manner; e.g., the
Finns know of the destruction of Sampo and of
the felling of the huge Oak.].
This precludes any
terrestrial diagram. It looks as though the
"axis," implicating the equinoctial and
solstitial colures, runs through the "three
worlds" which are, to state it roughly and most
inaccurately, the following:
(a) the 'sky north of the
Tropic of Cancer, i.e., the sky proper, domain
of the gods
(b) the "inhabited world"
of the zodiac between the tropics, the domain of
the "living"
(c) the II sky south from
the Tropic of Capricorn, alias: the Sweet-Water
Ocean, the realm of the dead.
p. 355
The story of Orwandel (the
analogue of Orion the Hunter) must be gathered
chiefly from the prose Edda. He was a huntsman,
big enough and brave enough to cope with giants.
He was the friend of Thor, the husband of Groa,
the father of Swipdag, the enemy of the giant
Coller and the monster Sela.
The story of his birth,
and of his being blinded, are most apparently in
the Teutonic stories, unless we may suppose that
the bleeding of Robin Hood till he could not
see, by the traitorous prioress, is the last
remains of the story of the great archer's
death. Dr. Rydberg regards him and his kinsfolk
as doublets of those three men of feats, Egil
the archer, Weyland the smith, and Finn the
harper, and these again doublets of the three
primeval artists, the sons of Iwaldi, whose
story is told in the prose Edda.
It is not known which
star, or constellation, Orvandils-ta was
supposed to be. Apart from such wild notions as
that the whole of Orion represented his toe [n4
R. H. Allen, Star Names (1963), p. 310.]—to
identify it with Rigel, i.e., beta Orionis,
would be worth discussing—even Reuter tries to
convince himself that Corona borealis "looks
like a toe," [n5 Germanische Himmelkunde (1934),
p. 255.] because he could not free himself from
the fetters of seasonal interpretation of myth,
nor dared he attack the Romantic authority of
Ludwig Uhland who had coined the dogma that Thor
carried the sign for spring in his basket;
accordingly a constellation had to be found
which could announce springtime, and Reuter,
choosing between Arcturus and Corona, elected
the latter.
It is not his toe alone,
however, which grants to Hamlet's father his
cosmic background: some lines of Cynewulf's
Christ dedicate to the hero the following words:
Hail, Earendel, brightest
of angels thou,
sent to men upon this
middle-earth!
Thou art the true
refulgence of the sun,
radiant above the stars,
and from thyself
illuminest for ever all
the tides of time.
[n6 See TM, p. 375; I.
Gollancz, Hamlet in Iceland (1898), p. xxxvii;
Reuter, p.256.].
The experts disagree
whether Earendel, here, points to Christ, or to
Mary, and whether or not Venus as morning star
is meant, an identification which offers itself,
since ancient glosses render Earendel with
"Jubar," [n7 O jubar, angelorum splendidissime .
. . See R. Heinzel, Uber das Gedicht von Konig
Orendel (1892), p. 15.] and Jubar is generally
accepted for Venus on the presupposition that
"morning star" stands every single time for
Venus, which is certainly misleading: any star,
constellation or planet rising heliacally may
act as morning star.
p. 358
But even the derivation
from the root aurr = moisture, ear = sea, would
not exclude Sirius. Quite the contrary. The
Babylonian New Year's ritual says: "Arrow Star,
who measures the depth of the sea"; the Avesta
states: "Tishtriya, by whom the waters count."
And as Tishtriya, "the Arrow," watches Lake
Vurukasha (see p. 215), so Teutonic Egil is the
guardian of Hvergelmer, the whirlpool, and of
Elivagar, south of which "the gods have an
'outgard,' a 'saeter' which is inhabited by
valiant watchers—snotrir vikinger they are
called in Thorsdrapa, 8—who are bound by oaths
to serve the gods. Their chief is Egil, the most
famous archer in the mythology. As such he is
also called Orvendel (the one busy with the
arrow)." [n15 V. Rydberg, Teutonic Mythology
(1907), pp. 424ff., 968ff.].
p. 362
"Men say that the nine
maidens of the island-mill (the ocean) are
working hard at the host-devouring skerry-quern
(the sea), out beyond the skirts of the earth;
yea, they have for ages been grinding at
Amlodi's meal-bin (the sea)." [n1 Saxo
Grammaticus, Danish History, p. 402.].
Rydberg, too, offers a
translation:
"It is said, that Eyludr's
nine women violently turn the Grotte of the
skerry dangerous to man out near the edge of the
earth, and that those women long ground Amlode's
lid-grist." [n2 Teutonic Mythology, § 80, p.
568].
In spite of the trickiness
and the traps of the text Gollancz tries to
solve the case; in fact, he tries too
frantically (p. xxxvi): "The compound ey-ludr,
translated 'Island-Mill,' may be regarded as a
synonym for the father of the Nine Maids. Ludr
is strictly the square case within which the
lower and upper Quernstones rest,' hence the
mill itself, or quern."
With this we wish to
compare O. S. Reuter's explanation: "ludr =
Muhlengebalk (dan. Luur = das Gerust zu einer
Handmuhle)" (Germanische Himmelskunde, p. 239;
he also includes a drawing of the mill). On p.
242, note, he renders the lines of Skaldskap.
25: "Neun Scharenbraute ruhren den Grotti des
Inselmuhlkastens (eyludr) draussen an der Erde
Ecke (ut fyrir jardar skauti)," adding: "Das
(kosmische?) Weltmeer ist als 'Hamlets Muhle'
gesehen." At least he thought, even if within
brackets and with a quotation mark, of "cosmic"
–Rydberg is the only one who has grasped this
point completely.
"Ey-ludr," Gollancz
continues, "is the 'island quern,' i.e., 'the
grinder of islands,' the Ocean-Mill, the sea,
the sea-god, and, finally, Aegir. 'Aegir's
daughters' are the surging waves of the ocean;
they work Grotti 'grinder,' the great Ocean-Mill
(here called 'skarja grotti,' the grinder of
skerries, the lonely rocks in the sea), 'beyond
the skins of the earth' or perhaps, better, 'off
yonder promontory.' The latter meaning of the
words 'ut fyrir jardar skauti' would perhaps
suit the passage best, if Snaebjorn is pointing
to some special whirlpool." Non liquet: neither
Aegir = eyludr, nor the nine maidens = waves,
whether surging or not.
p. 363
We stick, however, to
Gollancz for some more lines. "The real
difficulty," he says, "in Snorri's extract from
Snaebjoern is . . . in its last line; the
arrangement of the words is confusing, the
interpretation of the most important of the
phrases extremely doubtful. 'Lid meldr' in
particular has given much trouble to the
commentators: 'meldr,' at present obsolete in
Icelandic, signifies 'flour or corn inl the
mill'; but the word 'lid' is a veritable crux.
It may be either the neuter noun 'lid,' meaning
'a host, folk, people,' or ship, or the
masculine 'lidr,' 'a joint of the body.' The
editors of the Corpus Poeticum Boreale read
'meldr-lid,' rendering the word 'meal-vessel';
they translate the passage, 'who ages past
ground Amlodi's meal-vessels = the ocean'; but
‘mala,' 'to grind,' can hardly be synonymous
with 'hraera,’ 'to move,' in the earlier lines,
and there would be no point in the waves
grinding the ocean. There seems, therefore, no
reason why meldr-lid should be preferred to
lid-meldr, which might well stand for
'shipmeal' (sea-meal), to be compared with the
Eddic phrase 'graedis meldr,' i.e., sea-flour, a
poetical periphrasis for the sand of the shore.
Rydberg [Teutonic Mythology (1907), pp. 570ff. =
pp. 388-92 in the 1889 edition], bearing in mind
the connection of the myth concerning the fate
of Ymer's descendant Bergelmer, who, according
to an ingenious interpretation of a verse in
Vafthrudnismal 'was laid under the millstone,'
advanced the theory that 'lid-meldr' means
'limb-grist.' According to this view, it is the
limbs and joints of the primeval giants, which
in Amlodi's mill are transformed into meal. . .
Snorri does not help us. The note following
Snaebjoern's verse merely adds that here the sea
is called "Amlodi's kvern.' "
1978 J. Hoops, H. Beck
Reallexikon Der Germanischen Altertumskunde
s.v.
Bilro̜st-Brunichilde
(Nach Rydberg bedeutet auch die Kenning
Þjödvitnis fiskr in Grm 21, Edda, die
Bifröst.; vgl. Sijmons- Gering 195 z. St.)
"After Rydberg, the
kenning Þjödvitnis fiskr in
Grimnismál 21, Edda means Bifröst, compare
Sijmons-Gering, p. 195)."
Carol Clover
"Harbardsljod as Generic Farce"
Scandinavian Studies 51, 1979
“On the verbal as well as
the structural level, Thor plays off convention,
while Harbardr plays off Thor. Lokasenna 57-63
offers a partial but close parallel —so close,
in fact, that it led an earlier generation of
scholars to identify Harbardr with Loki.”[55]
[55] “So Friedrich Wilhelm
Bergmann, Das Grautbardsleid (Harbardsljod];
Lokis Spottreden auf Thor (Leipzig: Brockhaus,
1872) and Viktor Rydberg Undersokningar i
Germanisk Mythologi 1 (Stockholm: Bonniers,
1886) The counterinsurgence was lead by Fredrik
Sanders, Harbardssangen jamte grundtexten till
Voluspa, etc. (Stockholm, 1891); Felix Neider,
Harbardsljod; and Finnur Jopnsson Harbardsljod.”