Teutonic Mythology vol#03

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Teutonic Mythology
Gods and Goddesses
of the Northland
by
Viktor Rydberg
IN THREE VOLUMES
Vol. III
NORRŒNA SOCIETY
LONDON - COPENHAGEN - STOCKHOLM - BERLIN - NEW YORK
1907
TABLE OF CONTENTS
VOLUME III
94. Story of the Seven Sleepers — 707
95. The Anthropology of the Mythology — 729
PART V — THE IVALDE RACE
96. Svipdag and Groa — 747
97. Menglad’s Identity with Freyja — 751
98. The Sword of Revenge — 759
99. Orvandel, the Star-Hero — 767
100. Svipdag Identical with Otharus — 770
101. Svipdag in Saxo’s Account of Hotherus — 781
102. Ericus Disertus in Saxo — 793
103. The Svipdag Synonim Eirikr — 803
104. Later Fortunes of the Volund Sword — 808
105. The Svipdag Epithet “Skirnir” — 815
106. Transformation and Death of Svipdag — 819
107. Reminiscences of the Svipdag Myth — 830
108. Orvandel, Egil and Ebbo — 847
109. Frey Fostered in the Home of Orvandel — 865
110. Ivalde, Svipdag’s Grandfather — 870
111. Parallel Myths in Rigveda — 874
112. Judgment Passed on the Ivalde Sons — 884
113. Olvalde and Ivalde Sons Identical — 890
114. A Review of Thorsdrapa — 932
115. Of Volund’s Identity with Thjasse — 952
116. The Worst Deed of Revenge — 956
117. the Guard at Hvergelmer and the Elivagar — 968
118. Slagfin, Egil, and Volund — 971
119. The Niflung Hoard Left by Volund — 975
120. Slagfin-Gjuke a Star-Hero — 981
121. Slagfin’s Appearance in the Moon Myth — 985
122. Review of the Synonyms of Ivalde’s Sons — 991
123. Ivalde — 992
DICTIONARY OF GODS AND GODDESSES
— 1013
INDEX OF PERSONS AND PLACES
— 1041
707
THE MYTH IN REGARD TO THE LOWER WORLD
(
Part IV. Continued from Volume II
)
94.
THE SEVEN SLEEPERS.
Völuspa gives an account of the events which forebode and lead up to
Ragnarok. Among these we also find that
leika Mims synir
, that is, that the sons of
Mimer “spring up,” “fly up,” “get into lively motion.” But the meaning of this has
hitherto been an unsolved problem.
In the strophe immediately preceding (the 44th) Völuspa describes how it
looks on the surface of Midgard when the end of the world is at hand. Brothers and
near kinsmen slay each other. The sacred bonds of morality are broken. It is the
storm-age and the wolf-age. Men no longer spare or pity one another. Knives and
axes rage. Volund’s world-destroying sword of revenge has already been fetched
by Fjalar in the guise of the red cock (str. 41), and from the Ironwood, where it
hitherto had been concealed by Angerboda and guarded by Egther; the wolf-giant
Hate with his companions have invaded the world, which it was the duty of the
gods
708
to protect. The storms are attended by eclipses of the sun (str. 40).
Then suddenly the Gjallar-horn sounds, announcing that the destruction of
the world is now to be fulfilled, and just as the first notes of this trumpet penetrate
the world, Mimer’s sons spring up. “The old tree,” the world-tree, groans and
trembles. When Mimer’s sons “spring up” Odin is engaged in conversation with
the head of their father, his faithful adviser, in regard to the impending conflict,
which is the last one in which the gods are to take a hand.
I shall here give reasons for the assumption that the blast from the Gjallar-
horn wakes Mimer’s sons from a sleep that has lasted through centuries, and that
the Christian legend concerning the seven sleepers has its chief, if not its only, root
in a Teutonic myth which in the second half of the fifth or in the first half of the
sixth century was changed into a legend. At that time large portions of the Teutonic
race had already been converted to Christianity: the Goths, Vandals, Gepidians,
Rugians, Burgundians, and Swabians were Christians. Considerable parts of the
Roman empire were settled by the Teutons or governed by their swords. The
Franks were on the point of entering the Christian Church, and behind them the
Alamannians and Longobardians. Their myths and sagas were reconstructed so far
as they could be adapted to the new forms and ideas, and if they, more or less
transformed, assumed the garb of a Christian legend, then this guise enabled them
to travel to the utmost limits of Christendom; and if they also contained, as in
709
the case here in question, ideas that were not entirely foreign to the Greek-Roman
world, then they might the more easily acquire the right of Roman nativity.
In its oldest form the legend of “the seven sleepers” has the following
outlines (
Miraculorum Liber
, vii., i. 92):
“Seven brothers”* have their place of rest near the city of Ephesus, and the
story of them is as follows: In the time of the Emperor Decius, while the
persecution of the Christians took place, seven men were captured and brought
before the ruler. Their names were Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus,
Constantius, Dionysius, Joannes, and Serapion. All sorts of persuasion was
attempted, but they would not yield. The emperor, who was pleased with their
courteous manners, gave them time for reflection, so that they should not at once
fall under the sentence of death. But they concealed themselves in a cave and
remained there many days. Still, one of them went out to get provisions and attend
to other necessary matters. But when the emperor returned to the same city, these
men prayed to God, asking Him in His mercy to save them out of this danger, and
when, lying on the ground, they had finished their prayers, they fell asleep. When
the emperor learned that they were in the above-mentioned cave, he, under divine
influence, commanded that the entrance of the cave should be closed with large
stones, “for,” said he, “as they are unwilling to offer sacrifices to our gods, they
must perish there.”
*
For “brothers” the text, perhaps purposely, used the ambiguous word
germani
. This would,
then, not be the only instance where the word is used in both senses at the same time. Cp.
Quintil., 8, 3, 29.
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